Time to cut up Washington’s credit card

To the editor:

Wow, the eleventh hour reprieve. Our politicians have a flair for the dramatics.

For years now, our government has played a game of high-stakes poker with the American people's way of life, when each side bet and raised its version of what would solve our debt crisis. The sad thing is that each side really was proposing very similar deals but in fact none of the deals will do anything to cut federal spending. It's like maxing out your credit card and then borrowing money to make the payments while asking the bank to up your credit limit.

Our government is the only one to blame for our $14 trillion debt. Now they want us to believe that $3 trillion in cuts over 10 years is going to help. They have to be kidding since the CBO's latest figures show the government is projected to spend $46 trillion over the next decade.

Let's face it: The only default our government has made is to the American People. I don't care what party you back but the American people need to wake up and take away our government's credit card.

Joe Schaerer

Las Vegas

Income problem

To the editor:

Republican leaders keep repeating that "we do not have an income problem, we have a spending problem." But if we don't have an income problem, why did we need to put the cost of the Iraqi war on credit? Why wasn't our new prescription drug program paid for?

President Barack Obama's spending is only a problem because a lot of it goes on our deficit. Why? Could it be that our Treasury has been starved for more than 10 years now? President Obama is working with the same income that President George W. Bush worked with.

Our leaders should put down their party manuals and pick up a history book and try to figure out how our country was able to bring down a larger national debt than what we have today.

After World War II we cut this debt and we also covered the cost of the Marshall Plan that rebuilt Europe. In the '50s we cut our debt and paid for the Korean War and built our Interstate highway system. Did we have a spending problem then? In the '60s we cut our debt and we paid for the Vietnam War and invested heavily in a space program that ended up with a man on the moon. Did we have a spending problem then?

We even brought down our debt in the '70s when we had a bad economy and had to suffer with disco music. Our national debt rose in the '80s only because of defense spending.

I know that $14 trillion is a large, scary number and some political leaders want to scare people by constantly using it. But our national debt should be talked about as a percentage of our Gross Domestic Product.

We are Americans. Americans do not sit around scared and worrying about a country like China. Americans invest in their country and its people and we fly past a country such as China.

We know from the past that a large middle class will take care of our country's debts. We need jobs and if spending cuts are not done carefully, we will eliminate too many.

William A. Reitz

Las Vegas

Senior pawns

To the editor:

Now that the financial crisis is over, I would like to comment on the leadership we saw during the negotiations. Frankly, I am disgusted with the tactics used by our politicians -- especially by Harry Reid and Barack Obama -- regarding Social Security.

These two "leaders" knew that there was never a chance Social Security checks would not go out. But these "leaders" chose to inject a huge amount of anxiety and distress into our senior community as a lever to further their political agenda. Seniors are not pawns to be moved around the political chessboard for the purpose of gaining leverage, they are generations of people who made this country great.

The manipulation of our senior citizens was certainly not our finest hour and we as a people should make sure that politicians are held accountable for utilizing such hack tactics.

Joseph Schillmoeller

Las Vegas