Archives

How about us?

One thing I believe we should have been doing a long time (at least since Sept. 11) is to make ourselves far less dependent on Middle Eastern and Venezuelan oil. We need to implement a multi-pronged plan - not just by drilling for new supplies but also by improving gas mileage on all vehicles and speeding development of alternative fuels. How come Brazil, for example, can develop a plan (using sugar-derived ethanol) and we can't?

Tragically, our efforts have been risible, and our inaction puts us at great risk. The administration certainly hasn't come up with a coherent plan that it's pushing. So we remain vulnerable. And as Hugo Chavez said in his offensive speech at the United Nations, if we do take strong action against Iran, world oil prices will go through the roof (he quoted a figure of $200 a barrel!) Maybe that won't effect Mr. Cheney (didn't he leave Haliburton with a package worth over $200 million?) but it will affect the rest of us. I'm afraid the White House seems asleep at the switch on this one.

I urge our legislators to speak forcefully and work diligently for a well-designed plan that includes exploration, conservation and development of alternatives as equally important elements of an energy-independent trial. If the administration won't act, then it's high time the Congress did, and in as bipartisan a fashion as possible. We cannot risk putting this off any longer.

There is talk of a pre-emptive strike on Iran. After the unforeseen consequences of the war in Iraq, I am convinced such a strike would be utter madness, and unless the goal is to bomb the country back to the Stone Age could not possibly eliminate every possible location that Iranians have undoubtedly fortified against such a possibility. We would succeed only in uniting the whole Muslim world against us, increasing the dangers not only abroad but at home, as well as sending our economy into a tailspin from which we might not recover for a very long time.

Before the November election I would like to hear that Rep. (Louie) Gohmert and Sens. (Kay Bailey Hutchison and (John) Cornyn are unequivocally opposed to pre-emptive military action in Iran and will not vote to authorize such action should the president request it.

Reginald Killingley
Big Sandy

--

Bad Trade Policies

Do you remember Ross Perot warning about the giant sucking sound of business leaving the U.S., when NAFTA became law? Goodyear in Tyler may well become part of that giant sucking sound very soon.

If I were a corporate board member answering to stockholders I would seriously consider closing this plant and either moving it to Mexico, where I can hire workers at $3 per hour or increase production in my foreign plants producing the same product as Tyler. Our free trade policies have given international corporations the upper hand.

Our middle class is slowly being destroyed. They talk about illegals taking jobs Americans won't do but now we must worry about foreigners doing jobs our workers won't do at a price set by the international corporations.

If I were king I would charge those corporations a surtax on products produced outside the United States because they moved their plants. China/WalMart would receive the same treatment. What these people do is use the U.S. as a dumping ground for their cheap labor products.

World free trade is sapping the life out of the United States like an unseen cancer does to the human body. Even much of our critical military weapons depend on items made in foreign nations, some who would not care to see us suffer.

I must place much of the blame at the feet of our business-oriented Republican Party and NAFTA Democrats. Free trade sounds good as long as it is free and fair. Many a big train wreck has happened when someone went to sleep and forgot to throw the switch.

Is the fault of the people we send to Washington or is it the fault of those who elect them?

John Cole
Flint

Saving Social Security

In his first major speech as Treasury secretary, Henry Paulson said the growth in Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid was the "biggest economic issue facing our country." He said, "trying to find a solution was a leading reason I took this job."

Secretary Paulson likely will have no more success in reforming Social Security than the president did last year unless public outrage forces fundamental changes.

To reform SS and Medicare means concurrently, reforming the tax code. To do either exposes the fraud that has been perpetuated on U.S. employees for decades. I have written entensively about SS in a free E-Book "Getting Ready For Hard Times."

As a minimum two things have to occur to make SS solvent.

First, amend the IRS tax code so FICA taxes (including those contained within "wages") cannot be a business expense deduction on corporate income tax returns, or replace the corporate income tax with an excise tax on business receipts. Currently about 1/3 of FICA taxes withheld from employee paychecks and reported by corporations to the SSA is not collected by IRS because of business expensing of wages (that contain FICA taxes). This is the only way current deficits may be replaced with surpluses.

After enacting one of the above alternatives (that would produce surpluses instead of deficits), repeal the law requiring that SS and Medicare surpluses only be invested in special government bonds. Replace with a law that requires the newly created surpluses shall be placed in real trust funds invested in alternatives other than U.S. government debt. This is the only way compounding, unredeemable U.S. debt can be replaced with compounding real assets.

Neither of these actions will be taken or even discussed by politicians or mass media unless there is public outrage to the ongoing fraud. There will be no public outrage until the public understands how the system really works. And the public will not understand how the system works unless it is told.

The urgency for Social Security and tax reforms should be elevated to the highest political priority (above the war on terrorism and illegal immigration) before the federal government bankrupts the country.

John Koraska
Tyler