Points Of Agreement

To the Editor:

I was in complete agreement with Mr Tynan’s topic sentence [letter hive, September 3, 2004], “By now we are tired of hearing about John Kerry’s exploits in Vietnam.” True! I also agreed with his concluding statement, “God help us.” Had Mr Tynan raised the following points, we would have been in complete agreement.

The present administration has a very poor and dismal record of accomplishment; hence the smear campaign against Senator Kerry. Here are the issues that need to be addressed.

The Bush administration says the economy is strong, but there are more than 36 million Americans in poverty, rising 1.3 million between 2002 and 2003. The administration projected that 3,978,000 jobs would be created over the last 13 months, but in reality, since the tax cuts took effect, there have been 2,565,000 fewer jobs created than the administration projected through the enactment of its tax cuts.

They talk about protecting Americans, but the administration’s own experts say that we’re less safe, that we’ve played into the enemy’s hands and made it easier for Al Qaeda to recruit, and alienated the rest of the world. Senior military personnel are repeatedly and harshly criticizing the actions of the administration as reckless and counterproductive. Retired Gen Tony McPeak, a former Air Force chief of staff and one time “Veteran for Bush,” says that foreign relations for the first three years of President Bush’s term have been “a national disaster.”

The administration talks about helping working Americans with tax cuts, but its own experts admit that it’s skewed to benefit the wealthy with the top one percent getting a third of the benefit, shifting the burden to middle-income taxpayers. CEO salaries have now reached 301 times the wages of their full-time workers. Again, they’re saying one thing and doing another. What does a gallon of milk or gasoline cost you now? What will your heating oil cost you this winter? I expect to pay twice as much for oil as I did four years ago.

They talk about taking care of Americans at home, but they are doing nothing for the 43 million of us who are uninsured, almost half of whom are working, and of which more than 8 million are children. Is this their idea of compassionate conservatism? God help us indeed!

Sincerely,

Terence J. O’Grady

54 Great Ring Road, Sandy Hook                        September 7, 2004