Reid, Democrats exacerbating Nevada’s economic woes

To the editor:

Harry Reid was elected from a state where it takes about 18 gallons of gasoline to get from its largest city to its capital city, but he acts as if he represents tiny Massachusetts. My wife and I credit Harry Reid for our reduced spending in Las Vegas these days. Sometimes organizations pay a lot of money to determine the motivations of their customers. Perhaps our insight here will aid in the Las Vegas recovery.

We moved to St. George, Utah, from Denver nearly four years ago, in part because of its proximity to Las Vegas. Here, our favorite newspaper is the Review-Journal; our favorite radio station is KJUL. We try to make as many trips to Vegas as possible. We usually stay two or three nights, then we load the car with better groceries and other goods for the return. We enjoy several casinos; our favorites are Red Rock, Green Valley Ranch and The Orleans. We begrudge no losses because we come for a good time and get goodies unavailable here.

In good times we came about nine to 11 times a year; now we come about three or four times. When gasoline hit $4 and $5 a gallon, we cancelled two trips to Las Vegas. Currently we have cut way back, not because of the economy, but because we are afraid of what Obama-Pelosi-Reid, absent checks and balances, are going to do to us next.

The United States has 1.6 trillion barrels of shale oil not far from here. We have enormous crude oil deposits in Alaska and in coastal waters. We have enormous coal deposits. But Harry Reid hates fossil fuels. Like the dilettantes of Massachusetts (which in area is about the size of Clark County), he loves solar and wind, though neither has proven feasible on any kind of scale, economically or environmentally.

So instead of allowing conventional development until the more exotic can be made feasible in a true plan that balances the environment and human needs across 30 or 50 years, Harry Reid wants to shut off the known, force the unknown, and dramatically increase my costs.

As a result, in the next 18 months, instead of enjoying your great city as much as we possibly can, we will try to somehow ensure a modest quality of life in the face of unnecessarily and permanently high energy costs, and we will attempt to make major contributions to the campaign of whoever runs against Harry Reid.

I am sorry that Las Vegas has reached 10 percent unemployment. It seems so unnecessary. If the rest of the nation reaches that level, we will still have 90 percent who are employed. Surveys are showing that many of those are secure in an adequate or even hefty income but are choosing to cut spending by as much as 40 percent. My wife and I may be representative of millions. The defeat of Harry Reid should be something that organized labor and management should come together on because, whether intentionally or not, he is destroying your business and jobs -- growing government in Washington, D.C., is not going to fix that.

In other words, what good is having the Senate majority leader from your state if he is not using his position to modify components of the Obama-Pelosi program that will continue to hammer your economy and keep it down?

LARRY BROWN

ST. GEORGE, UTAH