SWISHER’S ADVICE
Don’t compare Idahoto Wisconsin, California
I took note of Perry Swisher’s advice for newcomers to conform to Idaho norms rather than try to change them. That makes sense, because population density determines what those norms are. For instance, let’s say hand gun murder happens at a rate of 1/100,000. In California that means 372 murders a year and something would have to be done to regulate those weapons. In Idaho that same rate means only 14 murders. In Germany that incident rate means 800 murders a year. As you can see, population density determines how much regulation is needed. We don’t need the regulation of my home state of Wisconsin or of your California, because our population density here is much lower. My concern is that our Legislature and many lifelong residents are still using a 600,000 population model, despite a 1.4 million population reality.
RICHARD RINGELSTETTER, Boise
ECONOMY
Obama hates Constitution, resents American success
Reading the letters of two of President Obama’s sycophants in the Statesman I was disheartened — but not surprised — to see that economic ignorance is still alive and well on the political left.
Romney is a “slave to the rich”? Obama has earned “more time to help us”? Wrong, Ms. Day. Our president has led, and is leading, our nation on a path to destruction. Do you not understand why he apologized to the rest of the world for America’s “past sins”? He doesn’t like America, doesn’t like the fact that we’ve become the most powerful, the most free, nation in the world with a largely capitalistic economy. He doesn’t like our Constitution, considers it to be seriously “flawed,” and would have liberal Supreme Court justices essentially ignore it, as he is doing with his own usurpation of powers delegated to the Congress.
“Right-wing solutions are proven failures”? Wrong again. What Ms. Goff derisively calls “trickle-down” economics is actually supply-side economics, and it is a solution that has worked every time it has been used: Coolidge in the ’20s, JFK in the ’60s and Reagan in the ’80s.
KENNETH D. HUSTON, Garden City
Democrats responsiblefor this economic mess
Our financial crisis started over 50 years ago at the time of President Kennedy, with home interest rate reductions and lower down payments. Johnson gave us the Great Society, and then Jimmy Carter added fuel to the fire with cheap home loans. Clinton was forced into cheaper loans in 1996. Nothing-down-and-never-pay plan. President Obama burst the housing bubble.
It was a Democratic-created problem. As usual, all members of Congress just sat and let it happen. The government had agreed to protect the banks. The fire sale was on. Taxpayers are paying for the fiasco. Thanks, politicians, for the hundreds of billions of dollars in congressionally appropriated bailouts and stimulus packages.
The feds have created penury for the people on fixed incomes. Savers who are the remedy for what we need are discouraged to save. So who’s on first? Neither party will recognize legislation of the other. Meanwhile the economy continues to falter. Foolish spending must stop, like it or not. The United States is over $16 trillion in debt and growing. How far must we go before we say enough? We can change in November or slide into chaos. It’s your choice.
CHRIS HAYEN, Meridian
