To fix economy, entitlements, enact term limits
To the editor:
Your Nov. 28 editorial, "Entitlement reform," was dead on. We have all been hearing for our entire lives about the government funding problems to come. So why is nothing ever done to confront the problems? Why do our elected representatives not tackle the problem?
Simple answer: All they care about is re-election. They know if they cut benefits for constituents they will likely be voted out of office. Thus the problem: Elected representatives vote in a way that will get them re-elected, period.
The solution? Term limits. Make sure elected representatives never run for re-election.
I think it should be one term only for both the House and the Senate. Make the term anywhere from 2 to 10 years, but only one term. No re-election. Then they can make a decision based on what is good for the country, not what is good for them.
It is the only solution I see ever changing the country's spending habits. The people need to demand term limits, or we are going to lose our country to financial destruction.
B. DARLING
HENDERSON
Automaker bailout
To the editor:
Although the American auto industry has had its problems recently and the CEOs have been out of touch when it comes to administration, the government should not allow the Big Three U.S automakers to go bankrupt.
A $25 billion loan might or might not help the automakers survive, but in order for this plan to work out, the management definitely has to make some changes and improvements. General Motors warned that it might run out of money before the end of the year unless Congress steps in with assistance. If General Motors goes bankrupt, most likely Chrysler and Ford Motor Co. will follow.
This is obviously a Main Street problem. Do we loan the money to the automakers and save the jobs of millions, or let them file for bankruptcy protection and increase unemployment, spoiling the economy even more?
It is evident that the Big Three are feeling the consequences of bad management, health care costs and a failure to keep up with consumer trends. Therefore, they should come up with a written plan, proposing everything they are going to do with the loans.
If the government has already spent almost $150 billion to save AIG, why can't it spend $25 billion more and save the jobs of 3 million people connected to the auto industry?
Vesna Boskovic
LAS VEGAS
Report all tips
To the editor:
In response to your Tuesday editorial, "Tip jar":
The IRS worries billions of dollars of employee tip income is unreported. Nevada casinos have some of the highest tip earners in the United States.
It is imperative that Nevada Sens. Harry Reid and John Ensign and Reps. Shelley Berkley, Dina Titus and Dean Heller and President-elect Barack Obama strongly encourage the IRS to collect taxes on all income earned, regardless of the source or group of taxpayers.
To do otherwise is to significantly penalize those who fully report their income and pay taxes on such.
KEN REIM
LAS VEGAS
Mandatory gratuity
To the editor:
The only equitable way for the IRS to tax tips on service industry workers is the introduction of the automatic 20 percent gratuity to all patrons, as is the practice in Europe, thereby eliminating voluntary tipping altogether.
The worker no longer needs to "work" for a tip and the customer no longer can show his or her appreciation or disdain for the services.
KENT RISCHLING
LAS VEGAS
Herd control
To the editor:
It seems to me that a lot of the Californians who have infiltrated our state do not have one iota of knowledge about range management and what the BLM is doing to manage the horse herds in Nevada and the other Western states.
They do not realize that if allowed to go unchecked, the horse herds would soon over-graze the range and then begin to starve. A starving herd would soon become diseased, and there would be tremendous devastation of the herds. The quality of life for the herds would be terrible.
By controlling the number of horses on the range, the BLM is ensuring healthy animals and a good quality of life for the herds left on the range.
The Department of Fish and Game controls the population of game animals through hunting. A number of years ago, Arizona allowed the deer herds in northern Arizona to become over-populated. They over-grazed their food sources and became weakened, and then suffered the most devastating winter kill in U.S. history. It took many, many years to rebuild the northern Arizona deer herd.
Were the wild horses not managed, the same thing would happen to them, plus the cattle and sheep industries in Nevada would be ruined. And I have a pretty good idea that our eastern and California infiltrators like a steak, hamburger or a lamb chop every day.
Another alternative would be to list the wild horses as a big game species and issue a number of tags each year. They are pretty good eating, and the hides make good leather.
Years ago in Southern Nevada, we would receive cards in the mail. On the front of the card it would say, "Everybody gets a piece of ass!" When you opened the card, it would say, "Come to the burro barbecue at Bullhead City" on a certain date.
Back then, the people putting on the barbecue would go out in the area adjacent to the river and kill and butcher a number of burros and then put on a big barbecue and party in Bullhead City. People would come from all over for the barbecue. And it was really good eating.
MARTY BUSH
BOULDER CITY
Power costs
To the editor:
I wondered how long it would take for your resident socialist cartoonist Jim Day to knock the power company for suggesting an electricity rate increase (Wednesday Review-Journal). No surprise, it took him one day to put the blame on a corporation and make himself look like a protector of the "little guy."
Mr. Day conveniently neglects the real reason for increased costs: the Democrats get the votes of the wacky environmentalists who consider humans on a par with the lowest form of bacteria.
President-elect Obama promises to bankrupt all coal companies, who provide our cheapest source of power. Our personal savior from Searchlight, Sen. Harry Reid, has made his life's goal to stop nuclear power (cheap and clean) and oil and gas drilling (cheap and abundant), but he promises if we will live with monthly $400 to $500 electric bills for the next 10 years he will create 15 percent of our energy (unproven) and save Mother Earth. Is he now on a par with God? And where does the other 85 percent come from after 10 years, the tooth fairy?
Another "save the world" article in Wednesday's newspaper states that asthma patients must now start using $50 inhalators rather than the $5 ones they now use because the cheaper ones are burning a hole through the ozone layer.
When will the ignorant among us stop and realize the greens' drive to make their cause a religious cult? There should be no complaining about energy costs by anyone as long as the Democrats are controlled by the green crazies, who will do all in their power to eliminate humankind and return us to caves so they can sit back and claim they have saved the planet.
I don't know how they intend to survive. Maybe they could join a caravan to South America to Jim Jones country and have a Kool-Aid party.
Charles Schelander
LAS VEGAS
