Letters to the Editor

The light at the end of the tunnel may be Dems’ train

Here we go again, getting bombarded with political ads, mostly half-truths and/or out of context by both sides. But we do have a kind of crystal ball, it’s called history — that is “things done by most people in the past, will likely be done by them in the future,” especially if they tell you so.

The Republicans certainly haven’t done everything to everyone’s liking, but that’s been true by both parties, historically. The main platform issues I’ve been hearing from most Democratic candidates running for office is if they get enough power, No. 1 is “impeach Trump and many of his advisers and cabinet members.” No. 2 is “universal Medicare for all.” No. 3 is “tax the rich.”

Let’s look at each of their wishes. Seems like we did the impeachment thing before, spent a great deal of taxpayer money, everyone’s time and resources and getting nowhere, other than rhetoric and more accusations without real proof. No. 2, Medicare for everyone, which like all other places with single-payer systems, you can just “take a number ” and maybe you’ll receive the standard government-approved care in a timely fashion, unless of course you have government connections or are really rich, you can jump ahead of everyone else or get healthcare somewhere else in the world. But have no fear, I’m sure you’ll at least get the option of government assisted suicide any time you want, maybe even for someone that maybe burdening your life for whatever reason.

And No. 3, tax the rich, which, looking at our national debt and simple mathematics, if you took 100% of all billionaires, like Bernie likes to say, it would hardly put a dent in our debt, you must severely tax everyone that makes any money, so why would anyone really want to work to pay more taxes, not to mention how the billionaires would just go live elsewhere or rat-hole whatever wealth they could and stop doing anything for anyone.

No, the Republicans don’t have all your answers and certainly aren’t perfect, but that light at the end of the tunnel the Democrats tell us is there if we just put them in power is a train coming directly at your head. Like George Washington said, “Government is not reason, it is not eloquence: It is force. Like fire, it is a dangerous servant and a fearful master.”

David Jaronik

Reader responds to recent letter with fuel facts

I would like to comment on the letter by Mr. Breitenbach in a recent issue of the PVT about the Democratic Socialists of America (DSOA).

I was curious, so I looked them up on Wikipedia (enter ‘who are the Democratic Socialists of America’ on your search engine.) Turns out there are about 120,000 of them. They are well organized, with chapters in most states and a biannual convention. However, there are about 45 million registered Democrats in the U.S. That makes them about one in 400 registered Democrats. They have an interesting platform, detailed in the Wikipedia article. Seems they would rack up the federal debt faster than the current administration, if it were implemented. But it also seems very unlikely that such a small and far-left tail could wag the Democratic dog.

Mr. B seems to link DSOA members with people who are taking from taxpayers and not contributing (third paragraph), but without citing any amounts. Which prompts me to a large, and quantifiable, cost to the American people, and that is the “adventure” in Iran. It has resulted in fuel price increases on one to two dollars per gallon for the past six months, with no end in sight. How much, in total, is that?

We consume about 20 million barrels of crude oil per day, At 42 gallons per barrel, that’s 840 million gallons per day (gpd) of crude oil. From that we extract about 750 million gpd of gas, diesel, jet fuel and heating oil. At a $1.50 price increase per gallon, that’s over $1,000 million, or $1 billion per day. We are paying more than one Trump ballroom each day, or $180 billion so far, with no end in sight.

There are also comparable additional military costs, and cost for repairs for the damage of U.S. facilities around the Persian Gulf, without accounting for costs to individual countries in that area, a tab the U.S. taxpayer will have to pick up eventually.

George Tucker