Spending problem

Because President Barack Obama cannot run for re-election based on his abysmal record, the latest tactic has become class warfare, pitting the 99 percent against the so-called 1 percent. The motive for this is obviously to help re-elect President Obama and help promote his redistribution policies to “even the playing field.”

Assuming President Obama could get his new Buffett tax passed, the Congressional Budget Office estimates the additional tax revenue raised would only amount to $4 billion to $5 billion per year. This would not even be noticeable against Obama’s annual $1.5 trillion budget shortfall, or the nearly $16 trillion in accumulated debt we already have. So once the truth was revealed, in spite of the Democratic talking point, it isn’t really about reducing the debt, but another way to redistribute wealth in America, which is President Obama’s stated goal.

Once again, we do not have an income problem; we have an out-of-control spending problem. We see and hear on the news about the financial problems in Europe, but the debt in the United States exceeds all of Europe’s debt, and yet the president and Democrats continue down the same tax-and-spend policies that have gotten us into the same mess as Europe.

Allen Litten
Atascadero

Madison’s wisdom

Some might think, given our raucous politics, blogs and tweets, that factional polarization and gridlock threaten our very concept of self-government. Certainly factions have collapsed governments, even democracies. I am confident, however, that this will not happen here, for we had a wise leader who anticipated factional conflicts and who harnessed their passion and energy.

That man was James Madison. His checks and balances still effectively control the formidable energies of diverse factions, and his uniquely designed republic only requires reasonable measures of civic virtue to prosper. Our federated republic thus was never intended to be free of powerful, diverse factions; it was actually constructed to thrive on them! One can even argue that, should a unified consensus ever silence these factions, the cure would be worse than the disease.

Madison amazingly knew what neuroscience is now revealing, that the debate and dissent of human friction make the creative spark.

Dan Biezad
San Luis Obispo

Over-legislation

Laws are being made to enforce anticipated social misbehavior. What are we doing? Will we become prisoners of our own system?

Assemblywoman Shannon Grove, R-California, wants to place legislators on part-time duty. California used to have only part-time legislators, but now it has more than 100 full-time legislators. It is no wonder that we are in an era of over-legislation. I hope California citizens will be wise enough to recognize the evil in this trend.

Arnold Ruiz
San Luis Obispo

Consider a shift

The April 15 article “Economy splits state into coast and everything east” would seem to indicate that the overwhelming majority of voters in the inland areas of our state might wish to consider shifting their support from the Reactionary Right to politicians of more moderate economic positions, who look out for their own interests, not those of the rich, and stop shooting themselves in the feet.

Hugh M. Gilson
Oceano