Power-hungry feds trying to force social change with ‘green’ policies
To the editor:
NV Energy has been railroaded in so many areas. Smart meters, which are part of a federal Department of Energy plan, are being put in place to force energy conservation through rate hikes. I expect that the executives at NV Energy already know they have a scripted part and know how to play the goat.
Last Sunday, Thomas Mitchell's column ("Confessions of a green-power welfare queen") spoke of the green energy requirements which mandate that 25 percent of the energy that NV Energy sells to the public come from expensive "green" sources by 2025. In the recent past we learned how the federal government prohibited NV Energy from building new efficient, low-cost, coal-fired power plants. And the cap-and-trade bill currently in Congress will double and triple the cost of energy for each and every one of us.
All of these job-killing and standard-of-living economic poisons are the work of our power hungry federal government. It is our government that is forcing social change while also making a mint in the process.
So when the time comes that the power company executives are sitting in front of some government panel demanding to know why the power rates must go up, and why we must be charged based on the time of the day we use energy, those executives will not dare speak the truth. They will simply play out the pre-written, scripted part to sate the anger of the duped citizens of this state. We will be obligated to listen to the government mantra: Big Business is evil, government is good, Big Business is evil, Government is good ....
1984 is upon us all.
Jon Hamel
Las Vegas
Entitlement reform
To the editor:
Harry Reid has chosen to make the Social Security system a campaign issue. He charges that his opponent, Sharron Angle, wants to eliminate the system. This is deceitful scare-mongering.
What Ms. Angle really wants is improvements to the current system. The system is currently bankrupt because it pays out more in retirement benefits than it receives from taxes. It cannot pay for the promises it has made unless it continues to borrow from domestic and foreign markets. The federal government already has trillion-dollar deficits and more than $10 trillion in accumulated debt. Sen. Reid offers no reasonable alternatives to save the system.
Ms. Angle's plan is to slowly convert to a system that creates personal accounts that would have ownership rights. The accounts would be included in one's estate and could be passed on to heirs. Her plan is similar to the plan championed by the late Louis Rukeyser.
Sen. Reid says that this idea is crazy. If such a system is so scary, why do Nevada System of Higher Education professors and administrators belong to such a system? Why do all of Nevada's public employees participate in PERS, a public retirement system that invests in stocks and bonds? Public employees do not participate in Social Security and generally receive a higher level of retirement benefits.
Sen. Reid's refusal to address the problem in a responsible way will surely lead to drastic changes in the system that will be far more scary than any plan proposed by Ms. Angle.
Bob Anderson
Las Vegas
Tough choices
To the editor:
Most people agree that the large federal deficits need to be addressed. Whatever is done going forward, some tough calls need to be made.
The Republicans spent on big government, took the nation to war and cut taxes -- and that drove up the deficit. They were kicked out of office, as they should have been, because they failed to make the tough calls (less spending and/or tax increases) to deal with the deficit.
Now the Democrats want to spend to spur the economy, which is driving up the deficit even more. As it was with the Republicans, it is now the Democrats' job to make the tough calls on reducing spending in at least some areas and/or raising taxes. So far, they are not doing either. If they don't, they are no better than the Republicans were.
If those running our government cannot make the tough calls regarding Social Security, Medicare, illegal immigration, the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, etc., what good are they?
An increase in the retirement age for Social Security, imposing sanctions and fines on employers who hire illegal immigrants, and exiting the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan would all be highly contentious actions, but they would also save a lot of money, which could then be used to reduce the deficit or help pay for all the spending the government is doing to try to spur the economy.
If the people we send to Congress cannot make these contentious choices, we need to find people who will.
Michael K. Casler
Las Vegas
Rory's plan
To the editor:
I find it most interesting that long after Rory Reid published "The Leading Edge" -- his plan to strengthen schools and reform education in Nevada -- his opponent for governor has published a very similar plan (Wednesday Review-Journal). Who is copying whom?
Brian Sandoval's plan, though, includes the use of tax dollars for school vouchers that can be used for private schools. Not a good idea.
Republicans are opposed to "bailout funding," but Mr. Sandoval says it is OK to use my tax dollars to fund vouchers for private schools. This is hypocrisy at its best, and it is not acceptable. Best we stay with Rory's plan to strengthen our public schools.
Martha Gould
Reno
On the job
To the editor:
Just how long does everyone think we should be paying jobless benefits?
The country is already trillions of dollars in debt and there seems to be no end to the Obama spending. Instead of blaming the failure to extend jobless benefits on the Republicans, why doesn't the administration look for ways to boost the economy that don't put us further in debt? At this rate, our great-great-grandchildren will be paying the bill for all this spending.
Maybe now would be a good time for all those people out of work to consider one of those menial jobs they would normally reject.
It's time that the jobless in this country lower their expectations and start doing some of the less-desirable jobs. At least they would be getting a paycheck. The rest of the country can't be paying jobless benefits forever.
We also need to stop making it a Republican vs. Democrat issue. It is an American issue, and the uncontrolled spending going on now isn't the answer.
Elayne Nosek
Las Vegas
Just the facts
To the editor:
Your editorial of June 28 misrepresents the DISCLOSE Act. The proposed law, like the best journalism, compels the disclosure by the author of opinions in all sorts of media. That is because it makes a difference whether an opinion, or stated "facts," are expressed by a labor union, a former officer of the RNC or a senator from a particular party. The bias is always there, and it needs to be up front.
The American voter needs to be an informed voter, and contrary to assertions in your editorial, such disclosure is needed to keep our country a free country.
Laura Cox
Las Vegas
Invade Mexico
To the editor:
I had an absolutely capital idea while reading the June 30 Associated Press story by Olga R. Rodriguez about the murder of Rodolfo Torre, a candidate for the governorship of the Mexican state of Tamaulipas by members of the ubiquitous Mexican drug gangs.
It is becoming abundantly clear that President Felipe Calderon is powerless to stop the violence in his country. Now is the time for the U.S. State Department to declare Mexico a failed state and President Obama to order U.S. troops into that country to protect the lives and property of American citizens living along the Mexican border.
While we're at it, we could also seize Mexico's approximately 12.4 billion barrels of proven oil reserves, solving our near-term energy problems in the bargain.
To those skeptics who say that this is a bad idea, I submit that unlike Iraq, Mexico poses a clear and present danger to those Americans living in Texas, Arizona and California. It is at least a better reason than we had for invading Iraq on knowingly false and trumped-up intelligence.
Bob Glover
Las Vegas
