R.I.P. Scout26
Some in Congress pursuing politics rather than policyI was gratified to see the truth reflected recently in the letters of Messers Johnson and Jeffery (Aug. 25) in your paper.I would like to add parts of a letter I wrote recently to our Rep. Roskam, who seems intent on running lemming-like with certain other members in Congress who seem more interested in politics than sound policy.Dear Rep. Roskam:I was saddened, disappointed and more than a little embarrassed to see my representative had voted in favor of the so-called cut, cap and balance proposal.As a student of history, I am certain you’re familiar with how successful a focus on debt reduction by President Hoover was in averting the Great Depression. I’m also fairly certain you know that President Roosevelt, near the latter period of his terms in office, yielded to political pressure to reduce the deficit after we were just coming out of the Depression, which nearly started us back into recession.Regarding taxation, I am tired of trust fund babies, hedge fund managers and major corporations paying a significantly lower tax rate (if they pay any tax at all) than I, a working middle class American, do.You insist on supporting tax subsidies for the privileged few and corporations, including oil companies. I think decades of experience with so-called trickle-down economics have shown what a failure in principle and practice this economic favoritism is.Please work with the president and other members of Congress to support the middle class so that everyone is paying their fair share to get us out of the mess a decade of government mismanagement has produced.Tim Bateman, Glen Ellyn
