Taxpayers can’t afford scholarship
To the editor:
In response to the July 22 story, "College aid gets lifeline":
The story stated that funding for the Millennium Scholarships was extended for one year. Why, this only entailed transferring $4.2 million to cover the costs of continuing this travesty -- of course, that doesn't include the original amount involved, only the additional funding needed.
J.T. Creedon, student body president at the College of Southern Nevada, stated, "They are not seeking a handout." If that is truly the case and students are not seeking a handout, then let's loan them the money instead, so they can repay it after schooling at a modest rate of interest. That way everybody wins: the student, the college and -- more importantly -- the poor taxpayers who continue to foot all these nanny state ideas.
Bryce Lee
Las Vegas
Against Titus
To the editor:
Rep. Dina Titus wants the citizens of the 3rd Congressional District to return her to Congress. Before ever considering trusting her to represent us again, I believe Rep. Titus, as a tenured college professor teaching political science, should be required to thoroughly explain how she could vote on two monumental comprehensive House bills of more than 2,000 pages each -- one changing our entire health care system, the other spending about $1 trillion in "stimulus" money -- without even having read the bills or knowing what she was actually voting for?
I personally fear she is such a devoted party lemming that she just blindly follows orders from Speaker Nancy Pelosi, caring little for Nevada or the citizens of the 3rd District.
It's not what these politicians say, it's what they do.
JOHN TOBIN
LAS VEGAS
Loan plan
To the editor:
The cynicism in the new banking regulation law stems from the fact that the government deliberately left out Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae. So while bankers will have more rules about how much and to whom they can lend money, Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae will still be allowed to hand out loans to those least able to repay them.
Isn't that a large part of what got the country into this financial mess in the first place? What kind of solution is this, aside from continued slanting of the playing field to the destruction of the system?
Maybe that's the plan.
KENT RISCHLING
LAS VEGAS
Too honest
To the editor:
Can't the Nevada GOP do anything right? How can state Republicans put up a nominee against the most powerful Democrat in the Senate who does not have the sense to ignore the third rail of politics?
Sharron Angle dares to suggest that the broken Social Security system needs to be adjusted so that the young contributors and current recipients will not be caught with their pants down when the system ends in immediate and massive failure. But doesn't Ms. Angle know that it is idiotic to speak the truth before the electorate is ready for it?
I suggest Republicans drop her and find a nominee who says that undocumented workers in the construction industry may be someplace, "but not here in Nevada," or says that while our troops are taking fire, the "war is lost." Perhaps he can do it with "no Negro dialect, unless he wanted to have one."
Richard Vertrees
Las Vegas
School money
To the editor:
With the finger-pointing done by Sen. Harry Reid and Gov. Jim Gibbons over Nevada's loss of "Race to the Top" funds, I think we've missed the issue of who should fund schools and how they should operate.
After 32 years as a public school teacher, I believe funding schools is a local commitment which should be determined by the people of the state.
Asking for federal funds just says, "We want someone else to pay for our schools." If Nevadans don't want their taxes raised to pay for education for the state's children, that is the way democracies work. We shouldn't be whining about it and looking to residents of other states to pay for our kids.
If the time comes when a majority of Nevada's population agree to raise taxes on themselves to pay for a better education system, then we will have more money for that educational system.
Tom Moffitt
Henderson
Living nightmare
To the editor:
After months of reading how unemployment benefits encourage people to remain unemployed, George Pucine's recent letter was the last straw.
My husband worked in civil engineering for 30 years, and those jobs are almost completely gone. The construction field will not rebound for years.
Does Mr. Pucine think my husband looks forward to job hunting every day, filling out a couple hundred job applications that result in three interviews in 18 months? Can he imagine how frustrating it is for people who have worked all of their adult lives to not be able to make a living for themselves and their families?
Unemployment benefits don't allow for a comfortable lifestyle. They help people survive.
Debbie Brazeau
Henderson
Speech issue
To the editor:
Wednesday's Review-Journal editorial ("Speech police") rightly rejects the Disclose Act and identifies it as a partisan bill designed to inhibit speech.
The Disclose Act would have prohibited thousands of businesses around the country from speaking out in this November's election, while leaving unions free to spend. The bill included numerous special deals cut behind closed doors with interest groups and sought to undermine key First Amendment rights.
The bill was also completely unnecessary -- contributions made to pay for political ads already must be disclosed. The Disclose Act was simply an effort to bury certain voices under a regulatory burden so vast that few could speak, other than those favored by Sens. Harry Reid and Chuck Schumer, such as labor unions.
The Senate was right in rejecting the bill.
Sean Parnell
Washington, D.C.
The writer is president of the Center for Competitive Politics.
