Your editorial on July 17 promoting increasing the debt ceiling with no strings attached (“Stop posturing and threats about debt limit, ceiling”) promotes more of the same bad behavior in Washington.

Doing what you are suggesting will just bring about the same problem when (not if) the government runs out of money again.

The time is now to put a stop to the waste, fraud and abuse in Washington. Even the most conservative proposal on our spending only cuts out $4 trillion over 10 years. That’s $400 billion a year, less than a third of the problem.

By not raising the debt ceiling, the whole problem will be taken into account. When the government can no longer borrow any money, I am positive the sun will still come up, people around the country will continue to live, and the dire consequences that are being predicted will only show up in Washington and the newsrooms of most of the national media.

The rest of the country will be fine. Look at Minnesota, their government was closed for two weeks.

At last look, Minnesota was still there.

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Paul E. Anderson

Saco

Isn’t it ironic how our handsome, hand-shaking, well-spoken members of Congress along with the current president and past recent presidents have backed the American people into a corner of disaster?

What’s worse is that they can’t get together to come to an agreement, and at this point any agreement that staves off our federal financial meltdown would and should be acceptable, even if it’s temporary.

For generations our government has spent like a drunk after payday.

Over the past five decades, our government has turned a blind eye to the destruction of American industry, never lifting a finger to protect our own jobs!

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Over the past three years, our government has poured billions into the banking community to keep it afloat with the hope that the banks would recirculate the TARP money to American small- and mid-sized companies in the form of loans to grow employment rolls — which the banks never did.

Now as we approach a financial cliff, they are giving us all heart attacks.

From the president on down our representatives threaten to cut off the lifeline of such services as Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, military benefits and current military salaries, etc. etc. etc. Additionally, they are planting a bomb at the very foundation of our economy.

Even folks with hard-earned IRAs and pensions will be driven to poverty when their bonds and other investments are devastated by the impending Aug. 2 deficit deadline disaster.

I find it absolutely outrageous how our elected officials are playing Russian roulette with our lives and with our country.

I would recommend that politicians “find a way” for the sake of their own political futures, as well as the well-being of the folks they represent.

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Skip Lieblein

Center Lovell

Kudos to letter-writer Patrick Eisenhart (“GOP sacrifices public good to achieve political goals,” July 16). I couldn’t have said it better myself.

What has happened to “government of the people, by the people and for the people”? Our forefathers must be rolling over in their graves to see what this country has come to. Eisenhart is so very correct when he says that all the Republicans want is another Republican back in the president’s seat. When are the American people going to realize that millionaires are millionaires because they have made their money by investing well and have no intention of sharing their investments with the middle class?

Millionaires do not risk their own money to create new jobs. I wonder why we have term limits for the president and vice president, but not for any of our congressmen and congresswomen. They are not the Supreme Court and so I wonder what they would do if they actually had to live on the money the middle class does and provide for their families with limited benefits.

Social Security has not had an increase in two years, but Congress continues to get its raises and benefits. Maybe it is time for the middle class to run for office and give our “caring” politicians something to think about.

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My understanding is that you only need to be in office for a few terms (just one if you’re a senator) and you will have all the benefits that the rest of us have worked so hard for provided for you for the rest of your life.

The poor and the elderly have to often choose whether to eat, get prescriptions or pay bills. I am fortunate that as a retired person with a husband who has a good job with benefits, I do not have to make that kind of choice yet. To the voters of this state and the rest of the country, isn’t it about time you came out of your political coma and put people in office who will represent you and your interests, not those of any political party.

It is quite obvious that all political parties are only interested in their own agenda and that does not include representing you and me.

Glenis Elliott

West Bath

I’m very frustrated with our government!

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How many weeks have we been subjected to the news of our government’s inability to do its work — specifically, to come up with means to reduce the debt?

Many of us taxpayers could find places to cut spending at the federal level without a penny taken from Medicare or Social Security. And don’t forget, those receiving Medicare and Social Security still pay taxes.

If every elected and appointed public official in Washington sacrificed half of his or her salary for the remainder of their terms, a major reduction could be realized in the national debt.

They have done nothing to earn those bloated salaries and they may even learn how the rest of us manage to live after the IRS has taken its share from our earnings. How is it the “servants” in Washington (politicians constantly remind us they are “servants” of the people) are so inept they have brought us to today’s dilemma?

And please don’t tell me it’s all “George Bush’s fault”!

Jean Webster

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Otisfield

Reader from away enjoyed July 4 column on vets

As the wife of a disabled Vietnam veteran, I read with great emotion Telly Halkais’ op-ed in the July 4 Press Herald.

Please print more of his work. He is a very interesting writer!

Jane Fairbrother

Charlottesville, Va.

 


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