Letters to editor: Sept. 22

So, do you want to balance the budget or just complain?

Very few recognized economists believe that it is mathematically possible to balance the budget while excluding tax increases.

Therefore, the congressional members of the Tea Party are not interested in balancing the budget, because they dogmatically exclude the raising of taxes, against the expressed will of a majority of the American people.

They are interested in preventing any Democratic president from governing, not deficit reduction. They will not negotiate in good faith, will not compromise and are willing to destabilize the economy of the United States, inflicting great pain and suffering on the American people, blaming President Barack Obama for their actions.

Many Tea Party leaders still insist that there would be no consequences if the U.S. actually defaulted on debt obligations. However, the markets say otherwise.

Representative republican democracy cannot function without compromise. Our system requires elected leaders to behave like adults, acting on behalf of the interests of the country as a whole, in order to accomplish the people's business. If compromise is removed from our deliberative democratic legislative process, it will cease to function.

J. David Hollingsworth

Versailles

Buy bonds, create jobs

Our nation must concentrate on creating jobs, jobs, jobs. Let's create public service jobs now. There is much work to be done. The National Park Service currently has a $10.8 billion maintenance backlog, $3 billion of which is for structures listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

How to fund these public service jobs? We should pay the way Americans paid for World War II, during which the government sold more than $156 billion in bonds, certificates, notes and stamps.

In elementary school, we each took a turn at tables in the hallways to sell war bond stamps to other students. Almost every student had a booklet in which he or she affixed the stamps. A full booklet was traded in for a war bond.

Purchase by Americans of public work bonds, certificates, notes and stamps is the best way to finance our 21st-century operations of organizations like the Works Progress Administration and Civilian Conservation Corps.

Genuine participation by all ages increased civilian morale in WWII. Morale will rise across America when we work together to create and fund jobs, jobs, jobs.

Joe Graves

Lexington

ROTC oath is serious

In the Aug. 24th edition of the Herald-Leader Sports section, I read about a University of Kentucky football player who was into his third year of ROTC and was trying to withdraw from ROTC as it was inconvenient with his football.

When an ROTC cadet takes his oath, it is the same oath all armed service members take. It is not a convenience or a passing fancy in one's best interest, it is an oath. It's an oath as serious as signing the Declaration of Independence and it cannot be revoked.

Yet, the player, his family, and the athletics department are condoning this. How tragic.

Jud Chalkley

Nicholasville

Vote for jobs, now

If only President Bill Clinton were still in office and George W. Bush never existed, what a different and positive world it would be.

If only. Two of the saddest words when used in this context.

I voted for Barack Obama in 2008 and I was very happy he won. Not because I voted for him but because the vast majority of Americans did. But I have to say that he compromises way too much, which is where the problem starts and stops. Just do it, as Nike says. And Nike is definitely doing a whole lot better financially than the U.S. and the rest of the world.

So follow them and just do it. Create jobs. Now. Anyone in Congress who votes against the American Jobs Act should not get re-elected for any reason.

Darrell G. Gross

Lexington

Political correctness

How very convenient of Tom Eblen and Dr. Nadia Rasheed to blame misinformed right-wing viewers of Fox News for insensitivity shown to local Muslims. I have to agree most Americans are very uninformed about Islam and err on the side of political correctness.

The argument that people who have a problem with Islam are merely misinformed doesn't address the actions of zealots who kill innocents by the thousands worldwide.

What would happen if a Muslim decided to convert to Christanity? Also, when Christians are given the same equal treatment in a Muslim country as the followers of Islam are given in America, Islam might be looked upon with less suspicion.

Maybe misinformation is not the problem but that people are beginning to become too educated about what Islam really teaches.

I encourage Eblen to interview a Christian from a Muslim country sometime and maybe become more informed.

Lorna Colliver

Mount Sterling

Prison for fiscal villains

Amid the discussion of how to get our economy moving again, one of the main requirements has so far been ignored. None of the various proposals put forth will have the needed long-term effect until we begin to put more bankers, hedge fund managers and private equity fund directors into prison.

Economic data for the last several decades show an obvious trend. Hourly workers have been averaging more hours per week and working more efficiently but they have been falling further behind as their wages do not keep pace with inflation. You would think that their declining state was a result of a decrease in wealth for the marketplace. Yet the opposite is true.

The people who work in the production and service sectors, who actually generate this wealth, have been shut out from reaping the benefits. I believe that this is being done knowingly and willfully.

Consider the robo-signing scandal, where banks and mortgage institutions knowingly and willfully forged signatures onto legal mortgage documents to transfer rights to properties. Will someone please explain how this is not theft or fraud?

Since no one can effectively do that, will someone please explain to me why more bankers, hedge fund managers and private equity fund directors are not in prison?

Scott Land

Perryville

Thanks, officers

We witnessed an event that could have had a disastrous outcome but for two of Lexington's motorcycle officers.

At the intersection of Man O'War and Tates Creek two small dogs wandered into the roadway. The officers responded at once, turned on warning lights to alert traffic and then took over rounding up the dogs.

These officers not only managed the traffic hazard, which could have caused several accidents, but also responded in a most humane manner to save these lost dogs.

We did not get the officers' names, but we wanted them to know their prompt action and kindness was seen and contributes to the fine job our local officers do every day.

Chip and Jennifer Harkins

Lexington

This story was originally published September 22, 2011 at 12:00 AM with the headline "Letters to editor: Sept. 22."