Your Opinion: Response to Ochsner, Part 1

Dear Editor:

Mr. Ochsner stated the Founding Fathers created a free country. Nothing is ever truly free and they knew that, designing our Constitution to institute laws that would enable our country to function and, interestingly enough, raise money to support government. Even in these early times people were paying taxes for postal service, defense, and to repay war debt. In this new government as today majority ruled. This did not mean then and does not mean now that everyone agreed with every proposal.

Some say government is too big but I say it isn't size that is the issue but function. Americans expect a government that will continue the programs we feel are necessary like Medicare, defense, food and drug and more (the socialism Americans know and love) and her citizens taxed fairly. Right now our current tax code favors the wealthy who can hire folks to find every loophole that will allow them to pay far less than is really their share. Can't we imagine how much less our national debt would be it everyone paid their fair share? And we pay for what to these folks is just a big game.

When President Obama came into office private sector jobs were in negative digits. Congress and President Bush had put Medicare Part D, No Child Left Behind and two wars on the American credit card. President Bush started a bank bailout President Obama had to finish. Wall Street gambled with pension funds bringing our country close to another Great Depression. Our national debt had grown in large part from the very folks that are pointing fingers at our current president. Instead these same congressmen just lie about their records and think no one will notice.

The Dodd-Frank bill passed under President Obama's administration gives some protection for American consumers against the rape and pillage done by Wall Street bankers. There has been more drilling for oil under the Obama administration than any other president but now we have fracking for natural gas. The procedure has serious problems. It threatens our drinking water and is causing earth quakes in places that have never had quakes before. Considering our current drought do we not think that caution should be exercised here? Once drinking water sources are contained you can't get them back.