Don’t blame Dems for GOP failures

Don’t blame Dems for GOP failures Editor, Ray Saul’s column has been a delight to me for almost 50 years. However, when Ray strays into the area of national and party politics, I have some prob­lems with opinions he expresses that he disguises as facts. His latest column from Sunday, July 6, is a case in point. Trying to blame 7-plus years of overall dismal lead­ership by the Republican administration on 18 months of Democrats hav­ing a one senator advantage in the Senate is a shell game. It is Bush’s watch, notCongress. Fact: The president does not sit by and passively stamp “Yes” or “Veto” on “work” from Congress that is “handed him.” We all know better than that. What gets to the president’s desk is what is left after the pres­ident threatens to veto any­thing in a bill he doesn’t like before it is even sent to himbyCongress. Fact: In order for any­thing substantive to get done in the Senate, 60 (not 51) out of 100 senators must agree to stop debate and vote. Is the U.S. a majority democracy? If the vote is 59-41 in favor, the proposal is dead since it will be filibustered to death. Just a perverse system to be tolerated in a democracy. Fact: By the time the “Democratic” Congress took office in the end of January 2007, this nation was on well its way to being down the tubes economical­ly. The bankers knew that, the hedge fund people knew that, the rich people knew that. The only ones who didn’t know that were the peoplewhosemailboxes and phones were tied up with offers of easy credit, credit cards, home equity loans,andsecondmortgag­es on homes which were already paid for by their owners. The foreclosures that are happening now are exactly what the lenders in 2006 hoped would happen. Banks are now getting homes worth more than $150,000 for the price of a $20,000 home equity loan or an “interest free” mortgage that after a few years jumps to 15 percent annual inter­est levels. No wonder people can’t pay their predatory lenders off. Fact: Thirty-million acres of oil-company leased off shore and on shore rights which the oil companies bought up years ago are not being developed now. Blam­ing the Democrats for not allowing drilling offshore as causing the high price of gas is another sham. It takes 10-15 years to even start getting any oil on mar­ket from a newly-drilled site. So, which party has controlled the legislation since 1993 in Congress up until 18 months ago ? Which party has controlled the leg­islation on oil drilling rights for 72 of the past 90 months? IsupposeGover­nor Schwarzenneger in Cal­ifornia is another obstruc­tionist who is keeping the gas prices high by opposing offshoredrilling? Heisa Republican, by the way. Fact – Gas prices are just the tip of the iceberg and no gas tax holiday will help. It will just take tax money away from the infrastruc­ture improvements that a gas tax is intended to finance. Fact: How do we overlook the mortgage crisis, the deaths of our troops in Iraq for basically NOTHING but abstractions the mess our schools are in all over the country, the overtaxing of the middle class while the rich are paying exactly 21 per cent taxes on the aver­age millionnaire’s income, and the sordid corruption in the US and Luzerne County? I say Bush’s current 29 per cent “popularity” is well-earned and is due to almost 8 years of incompe­tence and arrogance. No, Mr. Saul, i don’t agree with 95 percent of what you said in the first half of your column. I enjoyed the rest of it, as usual. David Panckeri, Weatherly

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