Your Opinion: 'Fact' fails to tell whole story

Dear Editor:

When I was employed at an investor-owned utility in Wisconsin, the union I belonged to negotiated a benefit package that, among other things, included an increase in our hourly wage and an increase in the shift workers bonus that those in the power plants would receive.

The local newspaper reported that we shift workers were getting a 50 percent increase in the shift bonus in our new contract. While this "fact" was correct, it did not tell the whole story as nowhere in this article did the paper say that the increase was from eight cents per hour to 12 cents per hour. That increase amounted to $26.82 increase for a whole year! Even though the paper reported accurately, they failed to tell the rest of the story, as Paul Harvey said so well.

And so it is with Mr. Smith taking umbrage with my comment about the national debt increase under President Reagan compared with the current president's debt increase. What Mr. Smith fails to tell the reader is that the increase during the Reagan presidency was $1-8 trillion over eight years while Obama's debt increase is $4 trillion over just three years.

Even if we were to take Smith's figure of $3.4 trillion when inflation is taken into account, it still seems as though this a mere pittance when compared to Obama's $1.2 trillion per year for as far as the eye can see. So, the Obama increase will be $10 trillion, if we the people are so ignorant that we re-elect Obama to a second term.

In addition, Smith fails to tell the reader that Reagan had a House of Representatives controlled by Democrats and Obama had a Congress controlled by Democrats with such margins that the Republicans could not stop anything the Democrats wanted to pass, until Scott Brown won in Massachusetts. I still maintain, and most Americans would agree, that Reagan was one of our best presidents, while Obama is one of our worst, if not the worst after only three years in office.

Mr. Smith is very close to another frequent contributor, Mr. Boldt, in that his comments should also be discarded as just a fog so thick that you can't see the road ahead.