RICHARD RIDER COMMENT: In today’s WALL ST JOURNAL, there are four good letters to the editor concerning Romney’s budget plan vs. the Obama non-plan. Perhaps the best letter is from my friend Russel Buckley, a taxpayer activist from La Mesa.
Russell works tirelessly for taxpayers in the region. He’s a thorn in the side of La Mesa’s crony-plagued city government. And Russell is quite active with the San Diego County Taxpayers Association — we serve together on the SDCTA Issues Committee. Most recently he signed the official ballot argument against the amazingly dumb San Diego Unified School District new bond/tax measure on the November ballot.
BTW, Russell is no “one shot wonder” in the WS JOURNAL pages. Just two months ago he had another excellent letter to the editor printed concerning local public employees in California pricing themselves out of the market.
See both letters below.
——————-
WALL ST JOURNAL
- LETTERS
- Updated August 28, 2012, 6:42 p.m. ET
Romney’s Tax Plan Looks Better Than the Alternative
The president’s budget received no votes from either party in either chamber. President Obama and his administration ignored the deficit-reduction recommendations of the Bowles-Simpson commission he appointed. Democratic Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid hasn’t held budget hearings for three years. The president and almost the entire Democratic Party have resisted every effort by the current Republican House to cut spending. The president’s primary campaign strategy seems to be passing out candy to special-interest groups. With that record, how in the world can Mr. Goolsbee be taken seriously when he complains about what he surmises to be insufficient deficit reduction on the part of the Republican nominee?
I don’t know whether or not a Republican administration will be successful in reducing the deficits, but I am sure that the Democrat Party will not. It has shown us it has absolutely no inclination to do so.
Russell Buckley
La Mesa, Calif.
————————————
- June 26, 2012, 4:02 p.m. ET
It’s the Democrats Who Are Discouraging Job Creation
It is not a federal responsibility to provide firefighters, policemen, etc., in cities and states. Besides, the federal government not only has no money, it is in debt up to its ears and rapidly incurring more for our kids to try to repay.
The cause of the layoff problem, at least here in California, is that public-sector employees have priced themselves out of the market. Pensions, especially, are fundamentally unfair and unaffordable. Pension reform could get many back to work—but it won’t happen if the federal government supports the current obscene pension levels with borrowed money. Taxpayers in states that are not as irresponsible as California should not be forced to make up for California’s follies.
Russell Buckley
La Mesa, Calif.