Letters

Letters to the editor, Jan. 6

TBO.com
Published: January 6, 2012

Appointment unconstitutional

It would appear that the similarities between Obama as President and as Der Feurer are crystalizing with his appointment of Richard Cordray as chairman of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau calling it a recess appointment.

This dictator wanna be does not realize we have a duly elected Congress not a Reichstag. His so called recess appointment is unconstitutional since the Congress was not in recess.

He even went on 60 Minutes and stated he would employ such means to further his agenda.

While in office he has blatantly disregarded our constitution so many times it is time that we the people tell him we no longer need or want him.

We must kick this bum to the curb along with any one sharing his ideals and policies. Any one who is so disdainful of our constitution in my opinion is a traitor. I feel sorry for whoever beats his highness this year because it will take a herculean effort to remove the stench form the white house left behind by this disgrace.

Mike Stansbury

Brooksville

Give it to us straight

There's hope for 2012! A long and costly war in Iraq which we were promised would not evolve into "nation building" has been brought to a close. Involvement in Afghanistan is winding down.

Historically speaking we're due for a better business cycle. We're borrowing less money from abroad, albeit only because we're printing and inflating our own currency. Many of our biggest problems are of our own making and therefore are within our reach to solve. Finally, we are in an election year and the potential for an end to the infuriating gridlock in Washington.

Regarding federal elections it is my hope that everyone will remember one phrase regarding our federal government: $15 trillion of debt! While many state governments have found a path to fiscal restraint, notably our state, Texas, Louisiana, etc., the federal branch continues to write spending bills without even the formality of a budget! Given this problem I'd like to offer a two-fold argument against a continued slide into Socialism, bigger government, centralized control of the economy.

First, pragmatically, it just doesn't work. Think of Eastern and Western Europe during the Cold War, particularly East and West Germany. This is not an isolated example. Even when the people, culture, and resources are essentially the same there are dramatic difference between free and state run economies. Consider North and South Korea, pre-capitalist China vs. Taiwan and Hong Kong, Kenya and Tanzania, and more recently Colombia and Venezuela.

Second, morally, it is highly questionable. The 10th Commandment tells us not to envy what others have, which is at the heart of class warfare and socialism. The 8th Commandment tells us not to steal.

Interestingly, both commandments assume such a thing as private property. When the government "appropriates" a citizen's money for functions not constitutionally granted it could definitely be considered stealing. When it passes the related debt on to taxpayers not yet born it is stealing, the way I see it, as much as if they entered in a person's house and broke into their safe! Certainly, even someone without a Biblical worldview must agree that it is wrong for us to benefit from something others are forced to pay for without their consent!

Pray that we would put into office some politicians that would tell the truth and lead us through the sacrifices needed to turn things around. I don't see that happening short of a God-changing-hearts revival. But I repeat myself. There's hope for 2012!

Mike Carlson

Weeki Wachee

Accomplishments?

"Ask not what your country can do for you; ask what you can do for your country." How many of you remember those words? Does that sound like Barack Obama?

How about Harry Reed or Nancy Pelosi or Chuck Schumer? John F. Kennedy not only wouldn't recognize this Democratic Party, I doubt he would belong to it. JFK inspired pride in this country. He challenged people and this country to strive to be the best they could be.

In the early 1960s he started our space program and boldly committed to landing a man on the moon and returning him safely to the earth before the end of the decade. He didn't live to see it but he did it.

Every citizen of this country, no matter their political party, was proud of this accomplishment and of this country. Since then, how far has the Democrat Party sunk into socialism and liberalism? How sad and how disgusting?

President Obama has just ended JFK's dream of space exploration. We now must beg the Russians for a ride to the space station we built. Are you Democrats and Independents proud of Obama's accomplishments?

This government is a disgrace. There is no leadership from President Obama. There is a Democrat Senate that hasn't passed a budget in three years and refuses to vote on spending cut bills that have passed the Republican House.

There is no plan to cut spending in any fashion. The super committee was a total failure and not a surprise with the people who were assigned to it. That failure insures that our Medicare and defense budgets will automatically be cut. Is there no waste any where else in government?

The big fight now is the so-called payroll tax cut bill. If it's the Democrat bill for two months it's paid for with a fee on home mortgages. This is not a tax at all. It's funding Social Security. It's your money that you will get back when you retire. Pay in less, get back less, it's that simple. Does anyone care? Where is the outcry?

So let's see what Obama has accomplished in his first three years in office. He has racked up $4 trillion in new debt. He passed an $850 billion stimulus bill, which failed. Cut $500 million out of Medicare in the Obamacare bill. A bill now opposed by at least 29 states and on its way to the U.S. Supreme Court.

He is defunding Social Security with his (payroll tax cut bill). With the super committee failure Medicare and our military will not be automatically cut some more. He is fighting against the Keystone pipeline which would create thousands of new jobs and would help make our country more independent from OPEC.

He has a U.S. Justice Department that let guns go to Mexico to the drug cartels. That won't prosecute known and proven voter fraud. That files lawsuits against states who are trying to protect themselves from illegal aliens. He has a Treasury Department that let our country's credit rating fall for the first time ever. Has 36 straight months of unemployment of 8 percent. He also gave $500 million to a company (Solyndra) that promptly went bankrupt.

How many of you will totally ignore the facts of the destruction being caused to our country and vote for him again?

Mike Flavin

Spring Hill