Letters to the Editor: Feb. 1 | Lexington Herald Leader

While awaiting next world-ending event, have a nice day

The times have changed, we have out lived Y2K, global warming, aliens (my favorite next to Bigfoot) the Mayan calendar and a slew of other cash-cow theories that promised to end the world.

I cannot wait for the next big story to come out. I hope this one has something to do with giant bugs or maybe tomatoes. Tomatoes would be a nice change.

Perhaps the aliens that built all of the huge structures (or at least gave us the knowledge to build them) left us some kind of hint on how to defeat the tomatoes. I do find it odd that a race of humans with stone and bronze tools were able to cut through solid stone with great precision.

It makes you wonder how old the Earth really is. I won't waste too much time thinking about it but it is fun just the same.

I guess if you say something bad is going to happen every day, you are bound to be right every once in a while. I would bet that if you say something good is going to happen every day, you will be right more often. In fact, I bet that tomorrow is going to be a good day. Either way, 2013 is going to be great.

Lee McKinney

Lexington

My pittance a big deal

Let's see if I have this right.

Our government spends close to $4 billion a year on President Barack Obama and his family. This includes his salary, the operation of the White House with a staff of around 450 people, his massive army of Secret Service agents who protect him, and other perks that we will never hear of.

Plus, he flies around on Air Force One at the cost of $180,000 an hour. And nobody in Washington ever dares to question the cost?

Yet some in Washington begrudge the fact that my Social Security check went up $19 a month.

Jerry Roberts

Lexington

Worth the fight

How many times in your life have you stopped and thought about how many people have given their lives for the freedom you are enjoying right now? To have the right to love and be loved, to have a family with privacy to teach each other the way you want to live?

We were lucky to have forefathers with the foresight to put God at the helm of this country. Now we have special interests and politicians. This is a new year. What will you do about it?

Cliff Barker

Morehead

Inflation at pumps

On the morning of Jan. 9, gasoline was selling in Lexington at $3.11 a gallon. By afternoonm all stations were charging $3.45.

Where is the Kentucky attorney general on this obvious gouging and price fixing?

Philip French

Richmond

Bridge worth funding

Sen. Mitch McConnell sent me a letter dated Dec. 21 regarding the financing of the Brent Spence Bridge. The letter stated that the Highway Trust Fund is distributed to the states and it is up to each state how that money is spent.

May I remind McConnell that in the Highway Trust Fund there is a provision for a High Priority Corridor and projects of national significance that qualify for 80 percent federal funding.

In September 2011, President Barack Obama held a news conference at the bridge, which he said had national significance. McConnell's letter stated that 3 percent to 4 percent of our gross domestic product annually uses the bridge.

Therefore, federal funding, not tolls — as has been floated recently — should be used in funding the construction of the bridge.

In the recent fiscal cliff deal McConnell and Vice President Joe Biden negotiated, there are tax breaks and money designated to NASCAR, Goldman Sachs, railroads, banks and the mining industry, just to name a few.

How can someone who is running for re-election in 2014, the minority leader of the Senate, not take care of the citizens of Northern Kentucky by appropriating $2 billion for the Brent Spence Bridge after approving billions in tax-exempt financing for Goldman?

The voters throughout the state of Kentucky will not forget.

Terry Donoghue

Hebron

Doesn't spend the same

Sen. Mitch McConnell says the revenue issue is over. No one is surprised to hear that since we know how much McConnell hates taxes. It infuriates him to see our government take money from us and spend it on things we don't want. Whose money is it?

We also hear McConnell talk about another kind of money. It's the money legal people known as corporations give to candidates for public office and political committees. This kind is First Amendment free speech, McConnell figures, because these legal persons want good government for their money.

Whose money is it, this time? Theoretically, it belongs to shareholders. Corporate executives manage their money and give some to the candidates.

Got that? Money taken from taxpayers is legalized theft. Money taken from shareholders and given to candidates is free speech. What if the taxpayers actually want the things government does? Suppose also, they have the right to vote? Would that make their tax money another form of free speech?

Tom Louderback

Louisville