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OPINION
Page 6A
Sunday, December 11, 2011
MyPlainview.com/opinion
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
Soroptimists appreciate support
To the Editor:
Soroptimist Internaional
of Plainview wishs
to thank the citizens of
lainview for supporting
ur most recent fundraisng
event.
Club members sold
affl e tickets at $5 each
or a 42-inch RCA HD/
CD television. Winer
of the television was
arry Keltz of Plainview.
Monies raised by the
ANOTHER OPINION
Tom Brokaw has written
book about the Greatest
eneration, a generation
hat grew up with fathers in
he home who saw it as their
uty to instill in their sons
work ethic. The Greatest
eneration went on to win
orld War II. Newt Gingich
is right when he warns
hat the newest generation
oes not understand or apreciate
the value of good,
ard work.
Tragically, 40 million
hildren will go to bed
onight without a father in
he home to teach them the
conomic facts of life. One
onders how exactly these
Mallard Fillmore
raffl e go back into the
Plainview community to
support various non-profi t
organizations and provide
grants and awards to
women and girls.
Citizens of Plainview,
we thank you for your
support in aiding the
community in which we
live.
Janice Posey, Chairperson
SI Plainview Projects
Suggestions to f ix the United States
To the Editor:
The USA has multiple
roblems this day and
ge. There are several
hings that can be done
o begin to fi x these
roblems:
1. We need to be a
roducing nation, not a
onsuming nation like we
ave become.
2. We need to lower
ages so that we can be
ompetitive with other
A little advice for Congress
With Congress lurching
oward adjournment after
year rich in drama but
oor in accomplishment,
awmakers have to decide
hether to renew a handul
of tax and spending
easures that could have
ignifi cant effects on the
conomy. We think it’s
oo early yet for Congress
o stop trying to stimulate
rowth, but Washington
till needs to be smart
bout how it does so. And
ome of the proposals
oming out of the White
ouse and Capitol Hill
on’t pass that test. . . .
The Senate devoted
uch of its attention
ecently to renewing the
Published Tuesday through Friday and Sunday mornings
nations and get consumer
goods affordable again.
3. We need to do away
with the unions and welfare
so we can afford to
bring back factories and
production.
4. We need to stop using
more than our share
of the world’s resources
and instead become selfsuffi
cient.
Harold Smith
Hart
payroll tax cut, which
would save middle-class
families about $1,000 in
2012. Naturally, Republicans
and Democrats found
a way to fi ght over a tax cut
both sides profess to like.
Each side fi libustered the
other’s proposal, and we
can all be thankful for that.
The impasse should
prod lawmakers to strike a
deal on a simple renewal
of the payroll tax cut for
employees, combined
with a continuation of
extended unemployment
benefi ts. The former is a
proven stimulus, and the
latter should be a nobrainer.
— LOS ANGE-
LES TIMES
children will ever learn any
kind of work ethic. While
in some cases there is a
fi ne mother like mine who
can instill it in them, more
often than not it’s simply
not possible.
When I was 10 years
old I wanted an expensive,
new 10-speed Schwinn
bike. I asked my mother —
the late Hollywood actress
Jane Wyman, who could
easily afford it — if she
would simply buy the bike
for me.
She said she would loan
me the money if I signed
a note acknowledging the
debt. I said, “Mom, I am
Would Mitt or Newt beat Obama?
The likelihood was
always that the Republican
presidential nomination
would come down
to a contest between Mitt
Romney, who never really
ended his 2008 campaign,
and someone who would
fi ll the role of the non-
Romney alternative —
someone who was not
viewed as the choice of the
GOP establishment, who
held consistent positions
on issues important to conservative
voters and about
whom the Republican base
could be passionate.
Republican voters
who weren’t enthralled
by Romney fl irted with
a succession of suitors
— Donald Trump, then
Michele Bachmann, then
Rick Perry, then Herman
Cain. Each one left them
unfulfi lled.
Now it’s Newt Gingrich’s
turn to woo Republican
voters who don’t
necessarily dislike Romney,
but aren’t quite ready
to commit to him. While
the timing of Gingrich’s
advances are opportune
coming only weeks before
the Jan. 3 Iowa caucuses,
this swoon, too, will end
in disappointment — if not
in the nominating process,
then on Nov. 6, 2012.
Set aside the specifi c
issues that animate social
conservatives, economic
conservatives, national
security conservatives and
tea partiers. Smart Republicans
are looking past
the primaries toward next
year’s referendum on Barack
Obama’s leadership.
The knock against
Romney is that he has two
basic weaknesses Obama
only 10 years old. What
can I possibly do to make
enough money to pay you
back?” She told me I could
earn money by selling
newspapers.
I signed the note, and
every Sunday until I fully
paid for that bike I sold
papers in front of Good
Shepherd Catholic Church
in Beverly Hills. Later,
I asked Mom why she
made me work for that
bike when the other kids’
parents simply gave them
their bikes.
I’ll never forget what
she told me. She said, “I
build men, not boys, and if
can exploit. The fi rst is his
inconstancy, symbolized
by Romneycare, the health
care plan he helped create
as governor of Massachusetts.
That legacy, by this
line of thinking, neutralizes
Romney on one of the most
important and divisive
issues of the Obama
presidency. Conservative
and liberal detractors alike
poke fun at Romney for his
criticism of what they refer
to as Obamneycare.
The second knock against
Romney is his 15-year stint
as head of Bain Capital,
a private equity fi rm that
frequently used leveragedbuyouts
to acquire and sell
companies for large profi ts.
When the Obama campaign
is cultivating a strategy
of class warfare, Romney
makes a convenient target
as the quintessential “1
percenter.”
But Gingrich would have
his own fl aws in an election
against Obama. Gingrich
earned $1.6 million
as an “adviser” to Freddie
Mac, the governmentsponsored
enterprise that
sells mortgaged-backed
securities and has received
$72 billion and counting
in taxpayer bailouts. That
doesn’t exactly make him
an effective spokesman for
limited government and
against crony capitalism.
you don’t learn to work for
what you want now, you
will end up as a 40-yearold
boy.
“I want a man.”
I pray that that’s what
she got in her only son. At
least that’s what I try to be.
On that issue alone,
Mom would have voted for
Newt Gingrich, who holds
the same convictions she
did. World War II was followed
by incredible economic
growth, which gave
the false impression that
prosperity was no longer
just around the corner, but
guaranteed by the power
and majesty of the federal
government as here and
forever present.
What we have now is
what has been called “the
entitlement generation,”
And Gingrich has a
closet full of moral and
ethical problems, from his
actions as House speaker to
his personal life. Carrying
a six-fi gure debt at Tiffany
and Co. isn’t an attribute of
fi scal conservatism.
Romney has plausible
responses that he can use
to his advantage. He was
the Republican governor of
the most liberal state in the
Union. Unlike Obama who
has shown only disdain for
Republicans in Congress,
Romney worked with a
Democratic legislature
to achieve a health care
compromise that contained
some of what he wanted
and much that he didn’t.
At Bain Capital, he saved
companies and created jobs
without government support
— something incomprehensible
to the current
chief executive.
Gingrich doesn’t have
any good answers. In fact,
there’s much more that Republican
voters don’t know
about his post-Congress
years as a “consultant”
that has never been vetted
— because, contrary to
campaign pledges that he
would do so, Gingrich has
yet to fully disclose who
his clients were or how
much they paid him.
The cohort of Republicans
who seem to have a
perpetual wandering eye in
the polls need to ask themselves:
Is what they don’t
know about Newt Gingrich
worth risking four more
years of Barack Obama
because of what they don’t
love about Mitt Romney?
Jonathan Gurwitz is a columnist for
the San Antonio Express News.
jgurwitz@express-news.net
Moving from the greatest generation to the neediest
MICHAEL
REAGAN
JONATHAN
GURWITZ
Americans who believe
that by merely existing
they are entitled to a host
of unearned benefi ts paid
for by money extracted
from their fellow Americans’
tax payments.
That the pockets of those
American tax payers are
not bottomless — and
sooner or later will no
longer be available to the
tax and spend crowd that
infests Washington, D.C.
— has not reached into
the minds of this spoiled
generation. They really believe
that money somehow
grows on trees, or at least
on printing presses.
We are fast approaching
the time when the Feds
will no longer be able to
print enough paper dollars
to fi nance their multiple
programs which are designed
to buy the votes of
the nation’s tax payers.
Hard work gave birth to
the Greatest Generation;
we are giving birth to the
neediest.
Michael Reagan is the son of
President Ronald Reagan, a political
consultant and the author of
“The New Reagan Revolution.”
Reagan@caglecartoons.com
BILL
O’REILLY
Tax man
cometh
This week Caesar
came for me, demanding
my tax obligation. As a
1 percenter, my burden
was substantial, but I’m
not whining. I love my
country and understand it
needs money to fulfi ll its
obligations. So the check
is in the mail.
Thirty-fi ve years ago,
I was broke, having
just graduated from
Boston University with
a master’s degree in
broadcast journalism.
I was lucky enough to
get hired as a reporter in
Scranton, Pa., at $150
a week. One problem: I
couldn’t pay my rent on
that. So I picked up an
additional $80 a month
writing dopey gag lines
for “Uncle Ted’s Ghoul
School,” a Saturday night
monster fright fest. Stuff
like: “Listen, Drac, here’s
what’s at stake.”
Over the years, I
worked hard, took
chances, moved all over
the country and fi nally
attained affl uence. Along
the way, I always felt I
was paying my fair share
to the government. I still
do, and I’m getting a
bit teed off by President
Obama implying I am
not. Hey, Mr. President,
the massive debt is partly
your fault. I had nothing
to do with it. This is not
a give-take situation. I’ve
taken nothing from the
government.
The problem for
Obama and the bigspending
liberal movement
in America is
accountability. The
outgoing doctor in charge
of Medicare, Donald
Berwick, told the press
that about 30 percent of
all payments are wasteful,
meaning either the health
care money is stolen or
used for unnecessary
treatments. In New York
State, Medicaid investigators
are fed up with the
“pay and chase” philosophy
sanctioned by the pinheads
in Albany. Pay the
dubious claims and chase
the perps later if enough
proof is developed that
they are cheating.
Obama is big on using
“income inequality” as
a campaign slogan. And
it does exist in America.
Folks without a good
education or a technical
micro-skill are not likely
to earn good money.
Unions are on the decline,
and the public sector
is collapsing economically.
No longer can the
taxpayers afford lavish
pensions and overtime
payments. The working
class is getting hammered
all over the place.
So, the Democratic
Party wants more of my
take-home pay diverted
to them so they can give
it to those not earning
very much. But the
Obama administration,
like others before it,
refuses to watch how
the money is dispatched.
Therefore, billions of
dollars are abused every
year. Medicare waste
alone costs the country
$168 billion per annum.
There comes a time
when the truth must be
told. The federal government
is not built to
run massive entitlement
programs or health care
or even the U.S. Postal
Service, which is now
going bankrupt. Washington
simply cannot administrate
to 300 million
people no matter how
much money pours in.
I work hard and want
to pay my fair share. But
I don’t want my hardearned
dollars wasted by
lazy, incompetent politicians
pandering for votes.
Call me crazy.
Veteran TV news anchor Bill
O’Reilly is host of the Fox News
show “The O’Reilly Factor” and
author of the book “Pinheads and
Patriots: Where You Stand
in the Age of Obama.”