LETTERS

LITTLE ROCK — Revamp campaign finance

We the voting taxpayers should expect more from our elected officials. What is censure? A slap on the wrist. I feel that those we choose to serve us should at least pretend to be held to a higher standard. They should not only be prosecuted for violating the laws when found guilty of improper actions by their elected peers, but should be expelled from their office with loss of all pensions and other benefits.

I believe our military does things this way and those feeding at the trough should fare no better.

In addition, the elected should show their sincerity to getting this crippled country back on track by rolling back their salaries at least 30 percent. We all know that they were doing very well for themselves before being elected either by being full-time pawns of their party or through hard work on their own.

Fact is, a person without connections to some large amount of financing cannot even pursue a national office because of the money required. It is time for a revamping of campaign finance.

Financing needs to be limited and we need recall provisions in place to get rid of elected persons in a more direct way to limit the damage they can do. We need people up there who know how to compromise rather than a bunch of bullying and obstructing. If one does not feel rancor and disgust for the way the system is working, I say you must be part of the problem.

EDDIE DILLON Sherwood

Hypocrisy is exposed

Barack Obama’s inability to acknowledge that the shellacking his party took was due to the far-left course his administration charted is a sign of weakness and certainly not a product of his “higher angels.”

For a president, such inability can be dangerous. If he really thinks the problem was due only to his inadequate communication, he is not only in a state of denial, but delusion.

A majority of political independents supported this president in the 2008 election hopeful of a moderate, centrist course, the theme of his campaign. His pledge to seek a bipartisan path of cooperation and compromise seemed a welcome breeze. Sadly, what now seems to give lie to Obama’s pledges from the beginning is his reported refusal for 18 months to meet with Mitch McConnell, the Senate Republican leader. Even then, the meeting only came about at the insistence of former Democratic Sen. Tom Daschle, a friend of McConnell.

In this single act, Obama appears to expose the utter hypocrisy of his campaign for president. It also completely negates the Democrats’ insistence that the Republicans were unwilling to deal on the most important issues, including health care reform. Such betrayal by a president who had record support from independents is why he has been abandoned by so many of us. I like to think it is because we know to look for actions to speak louder than mere words.

JOHN R. BOMAR Arkadelphia

Why GOP prevailed

In a recent recap of the Blanche Lincoln-John Boozman race, Sen. Steve Bryles of Blytheville was quoted as saying, “Voters are p*****, and they may not know why.”

People werep*****. They were tired of being talked down to and looked down upon. It was the “we know what you need” attitude of Barack Obama, Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid. Their dictatorial and aloof presence was the main reason for the Republican victories.

Bottom line: People were p*****. But remember, the old adage: Don’t p*** on my leg and tell me it’s raining.

RAY SCHONHOFF Stuttgart

Drastic acts needed

The Republicans have scored some very big gains in the midterm elections. The budget deficit and resulting national debt were two of their great rallying cries. Now it is time to do something about both.

I see no way out of our current financial situation other than to both reduce spending and increase revenues. The situation is too dire for only one solution to be successful. All this is born outby the recent report and suggested actions from the U.S. deficit commission. The American people are crying out for real leadership and I for one am ready to make sacrifices to ensure the long-term health of the country for my grandchildren.

Members of Congress, please, please get serious. Please lead by asking your constituents to sacrifice.Please increase our taxes. Please reduce some of our benefits. Pay down the debt. I am eager to join others in rising to the challenge. We are begging you to lead.

RICHARD PICARD Cabot

Promote simple idea

I had a light bulb moment the other day. An idea came to me while watching the news. What can we do to reduce our national debt? It was so simple, yet if done could really work.

How about a challenge to every office, department, agency, the military-in other words, the people at roots of all of our government-to come up with working solutions to cut the waste in their departments?

I am talking about the small departments that run our government. They know what is wasteful, but may feel like “Oh, well.” Make this a contest and whatever money they save, give the group an incentive of a 1 percent award. This is similar to a whistleblower program, but takes the fear of being a bad guy away from it as the whole office is involved and a positive light is put on the challenge. “Yes, we can” can be a program nationally statewide and locally, promoted and perhaps even made into a television show to help keep us all involved with the process.

What can you do to promote this if you feel this is a solid idea? Send this idea to any elected official, by mail, e-mail or phone call, or hand it to them. We all need to be involved or the same ole talk will keep on and nothing will get done. It is time that the people do more than just lament the situation. Make sure that each person takes part of the solution to the problem; and that means you, it means me. We can do this.

JOHANNA THOMAS North Little Rock

Spending is wasteful

It is unbelievable that the Arkansas Lottery Commission is paying the lottery commissioner $324,000 in salary for unsubstantiated expense reports, not doing employee background checks, not providing year-end financial statements for the year ending June 30 (according to generally accepted accounting principles) and entering into contracts without review by the lottery oversight committee.

A person in private business would be fired for these omissions.

The Lottery Commission is sending the message that this type of performance is acceptable as long as some of the money collected is going to the scholarship fund. What a waste of money.

Surely the commission could find an Arkansan who would work for half of the $324,000 salary and do the job correctly and ethically.

NICK PALANGIO Damascus

Naysayers in charge

I just finished reading the Arkansas Republican Gazette, as I always do. It’s not good for my hypertension, but I think it’s important to know what the adversaries of the middle class and poor are up to.

While President Obama was distracted, triaging the train wreck victims he inherited, the Republicans used the opportunity to disparage, distort, twist and basically demagogue their way into an election victory, and you, Mr. Editorial Writer, assisted them. His emergency room work averted a total financial, economic and social collapse, maybe even anarchy not only in America, but possibly worldwide.

God help him, he also tried to make life better for 32 million Americans without health insurance. Many think we already had the best insurance in the world. We probably did for those who could afford it, but certainly not for the rest.

Now that many good public servants have been rejected and replaced by naysayers, the leaders of the Republican Party say their No. 1 goal is to oust the president. Otherwise, they just make general statements about cutting $100 billion from discretionary spending (only 16 percent of the budget) and a total repeal of the health care law. They have no interest in tweaking or tuning up any portions that may need it. Of course, they want to keep the tax cuts for the wealthy, pretending that those are for small business. Real winners, huh?

JOHN L. YOUNG Ola

Anxious to see action

I am anxious to see how Steve Womack and John Boozman are going to deal with their representation of the Hispanic portion of their constituency. There is a mentality that is prevalent in Northwest Arkansas in which some simply ignore the Hispanic community. It is time to face the reality that they are here. Many have been here for years. Even if they are here illegally, the system has allowed them to be here.

If our congressman and senator want to do something about our broken immigration system, more power to them, but what has been going on for years cannot be magically reversed. It is time for them to acknowledge that there is an undocumented portion of the Hispanic community that exists here in Northwest Arkansas and they are going to have to deal with them.

If they truly represent this area, then prove it by first voting for the Development, Relief and Education for Alien Minors, or DREAM, Act. This allows a path to citizenship for those kids who, by no fault of their own, were brought here by their parents illegally. If they have attended schools here until they graduate from high school, they would have to either pursue military service or show that they will pursue higher education.

This legislation offers no scholarships and no financial aid, only instate tuition. It is time to act on this and face the reality that those kids are going to become a negative for this area if we don’t act now.

TOM ARNHART Rogers

Feedback Sacrifice is needed

It is not a good thing to allow ourselves to be kidded, brainwashed. America has never supported any wars it has participated in without having to tax our people straight up to pay for it.

No one likes increases in our taxation. How else but the sacrifice of all citizens to pay for war, not only the sacrifice of our beloved brave soldiers’ lives and limbs?

We are still at war with two countries, long wars approaching 10 years. And where has the money come from to pay the trillions? We have had to resort to borrowing because our former government refused to ask all the people for sacrifice. It turned to Communist China for the borrowing of money.

Tell me, what kind of sense does that make?

A.A. DUNN Fayetteville

Was ad necessary?

Amidst the controversy surrounding the Little Rock National Airport executive director’s spending $40,000 for a football-field airport advertisement at his son’s school, why isn’t anyone asking why the airport would be doing any advertising in the first place?

Seems kind of like advertising an interstate highway. I mean, if you need to travel somewhere that’s too far to drive or you need to get there quickly, do you really need an advertisement to help you figure out that you might need to take a plane? Once you decide to fly, what are you going to do, drive to Memphis to catch a plane?

JIM LAUX Sherwood