Letter to the Editor

Government is battle of progressives versus conservatives

I read Mr. Ferrell’s letter with great interest. I agree that conservatives have elected Republicans in the past that go on to go against the conservative principles of smaller government and lower taxes.

Those that profess to be conservative but are really progressive hurt the real conservatives and voting for them is a risk, but that is better than voting for a known progressive tax-and-spend Democrat. There are currently several new conservatives that have been elected that are pushing the real conservative policies.

I also agree that President Eisenhower warned about the military/industrial complex, however that is not an exclusive conservative issue, the progressives have their hands in plenty of those deals.

Mr. Ferrell implies that conservatives get us into winless wars. The first winless war, Korea, was Democratic. The second winless war was Viet Nam, also Democratic. Yes, a conservative started the last so-called winless war but it became winless under a Democrat.

I believe Mr. Ferrell errs in his blame of some of the conservative actions. President Reagan took office after President Carter, a progressive, had made a mess of the country gas lines, 20 percent inflation, 20 percent interest rates and the mess in Iran.

President Reagan, in his effort to turn things around, had to deal with a Democrat (progressive) controlled Congress. President Reagan’s tax cuts brought in record revenue and some of that was by taking away some deductions, but Congress would not control spending thus increase the national debt.

I notice that he does not mention our current mess which started the last two years of President Bush’s administration when the Democrats (progressives) took control of Congress and spending, which President Obama did not help in his first four years with the Democrats in control of Congress and the national debt grew rapidly. He did give us the ACA which is still not completely working correctly and contains many new taxes.

He mentions the Bundy Ranch which the BLM says owes the government over a million dollars rent and calls it welfare. He does not mention Pine Creek Ranch which the government owes them over fourteen million dollars and has not paid.

He mentions Eric Cantor leaving Congress and getting a lobbyist job at a lot more money, not against the law. What about those, like Senator Reid, that get into government office and their personal worth goes from nothing to millions while they are still in office. What did Senator Reid really do for Nevada before the green energy revolution?

Now as to his pot holes, that was what the gas tax was supposed to cover before the progressives moved it to the general fund to spend elsewhere. The environmentalists forced the automakers to increase the gas mileage on vehicles and pushed for electric cars and then wonder where the money to repair roads went. Now the progressives want to tax vehicles by miles driven.

At least TRUE conservatives want smaller government and lower taxes and to follow that old document called the CONSTITUTION, unlike progressives that think the Constitution is out of date and should be replaced.

Finally, I am glad that Mr. Ferrell is pretty well satisfied with what he gets for his local taxes but am sorry he is burned that the local government wants to increase gas taxes to fix the roads.

If state governments did not expect to get money from the federal government for everything under the sun, maybe less money would go to the federal government and more would be kept here for state projects.

Bruce Kline