Letters to the Editor for Jan. 18, 2011

U.S. government must stop borrowing money The time has come to stop borrowing money to pay for U.S. government spending. The current debt limit will be reached in March. I believe the best course is to deny any further increase. If the House votes to not raise the debt limit now, it will give the administration a couple of months to plan its management of the spending cuts. It must find a way to reduce spending without defaulting on debt service. It must also maintain necessary government activities. That leaves unnecessary spending, which must be stopped before the limit is reached. I don't know how the administration will handle this crisis. However, the crisis will come some day. The only question is when this will happen and how much more debt we will have before dealing with this problem. The administration will be judged on its performance in handling this spending crisis. If the administration merely keeps spending on its favorite programs and defaults on the debt, then it can expect to see another huge defeat at the polls. Each of us would choose a different path to cutting spending. Here are my top choices for cuts: First on my list would be the TSA. It should be cut around 90 percent and screening of all passengers should be stopped. The remaining manpower should be used intelligently to seek out actual terror perpetrators instead of merely harassing the traveling public. Put another way, it should become a smart crime prevention agency rather than one that treats the entire traveling public as criminals. Next, I would put an immediate stop to the undeclared "War on Drugs." This "War" has spent huge amounts of money, caused the deaths of uncountable thousands of people, and put the USA at the top of the list of nations regarding incarceration of its own citizens with no reduction in drug use. We lost. It is time to put all these people (DEA, etc.) to fruitful purposes or put them out on the street to seek gainful employment. Throughout the government there are many thousands of workers and particularly managers who do not earn their keep. If a person is not producing a satisfactory amount of value for the government, he should be laid off. If the unions get in the way of eliminating the truly worthless "workers," then the unions should be decertified and eliminated from the government employment picture. If these measures don't achieve the necessary reductions in spending, then even more unpleasant measures are necessary. This might include eliminating whole branches of the government who do not produce a worthwhile outcome for the American public. This goes double for agencies who take illegal actions in spite of Congressional and court decisions such as the FCC and EPA. We simply can't tolerate regulators that try to implement bad programs that have already been shot down in Congress. In its actions, Congress and the administration should make it very clear we intend to live up to our debt obligations. If indeed we must have a short term technical default, then we must stop virtually all other government expenditures until the payments are back up to date. There is no other way this unpleasant medicine can be taken. We must simply stop all the excess spending -- now. Paul Mulwitz, Camas Protecting borders should be a priority The truth is very "politically incorrect," (which is why the Federal Communications Commission wants to censor the internet). One truth our government suppresses is how many crimes are committed by illegal aliens. However, we can make reasonable estimates. We do know that 27 percent of the prisoners in U.S. jails and penitentiaries are illegal aliens, so we can reasonably assume that they commit 27 percent of our violent crimes. And that, in 2009 the number of Americans murdered by illegal aliens is more than six times the number of American servicemen killed in Afghanistan. We're not being invaded by Afghanistan or Iraq, but there are between 15 and 20 million invaders from across our southern border (taking the jobs of unemployed Americans). Yet Homeland Security Secretary Napolitano and the elitist Obama administration impede local authorities from enforcing our immigration laws and protecting our borders, which should be a top priority. Chuck Miller, Camas County can't afford BPA plans The existing right-of-way won't work. We can't afford to risk losing all our electrical power in the event of a terrorist attack or natural disaster on a single transmission line. We can't afford the health risks associated with close proximity to 500 kilovolts. We can't afford the loss in property values from having 15 story metal monsters in our neighborhoods. The people of Clark County have made their case and clearly Bonneville Power Administration must do the right thing and go away from the populated areas and build a separate new electrical transmission line. Bill Nelson, Vancouver

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