Published: October 20, 2008 11:35 am      

10/19 Letters to the Editor

Vote for Rob Curnock



Dear Editor:



Rob Curnock understands our economy. Our current U.S congressman doesn’t know squat about our economy, or the central Texas district he represents.

He claimed, in an article printed in the Oct. 7 issue of the Times-Review, “Edwards discusses economy, politics,” that our current economic troubles are caused by 1999 legislation “that led to the deregulation of all these Wall Street banks.”

Unfortunately, our current Democrat congressman is completely wrong. The banking system was made socialist and ruined a long time ago, by Democrats.

Franklin D. Roosevelt, a Democrat, created Fannie Mae to make mortgages available to poor people as part of the “New Deal.”

The “New Deal” failure didn’t do anything to end the Great Depression, World War II did.

Lyndon Johnson, a Democrat, as part of his “Great Society,” created Freddie Mac to compete with Fannie Mae and create even easier mortgages for poor people who would not be able to pay them back.

Jimmy Carter, a Democrat, created the Community Reinvestment Act to force banks to give mortgages to people who would not normally qualify for a mortgage because they didn’t have the ability to pay it back.

And Bill Clinton, a Democrat, threatened the banks with fines and other penalties if they didn’t give mortgages to poor people who couldn’t pay back the mortgage. All of this is regulation, and it is over-regulation. Regulation is the problem.

In 2001, George W. Bush warned that the banking system was shaky.

Republicans listened, and tried to adjust and ease regulations. They were blocked by Democrats Christopher Dodd and Barney Frank, among other Democrats.

In 2006, John McCain and other Republicans warned that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac were being mismanaged and had severe problems with their book keeping. Republicans tried to adjust again. But, now Dems had control of the House and Senate.

Guess who blocked the changes necessary to prevent exactly what is happening now? Dodd, Frank and Barack Obama, among other Democrats. So, here we are fixing the mess the Democrats got us into.

And who is making the decisions? Democrats Dodd, Frank and Obama, among other Democrats.

Republicans didn’t get us into this. Democrats did. And, Democrats are getting exactly what they wanted: socialism. Ask Obama.

He straight out told a plumber in Ohio the other day that his tax plan would “spread the wealth.” Hmmm … who else said the wealth should be spread amongst the masses? Oh yeah. That was Karl Marx. Hint: The Soviet Union was a failure and crumbled under its own inability to produce goods and services.

Curnock understands that. He also understands and believes in our Central Texas conservative ideals and values. Curnock wants to keep government small, our military strong, taxes low and our border secure.

These are all things our current congressman has voted against. He voted to cut off funds to our troops who are in harm’s way defending us today. He constantly votes for pork-barrel spending projects.

That means he is taking your hard-earned money in the form of taxes and giving the money for bridges to nowhere. Every once in a while he brings some home and then touts how wonderful he is in the newspapers.

That was our money in the first place! The government takes your money as taxes, and then gives you back 10 percent, and that is supposed to be a good thing? Would you do business with a bank that would only let you withdraw 10 percent of the money you deposited?

Curnock will represent conservative Texas values.



Dan Hunt





Electing Obama will speed up downward spiral Cleburne



Dear Editor:



As the architect, of today’s global banking crisis, Alan Greenspan for three straight years, starting August 2002, chose to keep U.S. interest rates far below the rate of inflation — making debt profitable and savings futile.

That period marked the first run of subzero returns paid to cash since the inflationary 1970s, when loose money worldwide led to a bubble in prices that needed 20 percent interest rates to revive faith in the dollar.

Ultra-expansionary U.S. policies with artificially low interest rates then led to bubbles all over the world in every imaginable asset class.

Greenspan’s successor — Ben Bernanke — tiptoed his way back up to 4 percent real interest rates in late 2006. With housing now a political issue — and home ownership a Democrat given right for even the flakiest of debtors — the first sign of trouble would cause a collapse in the real rates, destroying the value of money in the hope of achieving Reflation Part II.

Reflation Part I worked after the tech-stock bubble blew up. Why not again? And faced with a much greater crisis, or so he believed, he managed to out Greenspan the Maestro, pushing real interest rates down to a minus 3 percent and worse.

Today, almost a decade after Greenspan told Congress in a 1999 hearing, “Central banks, of necessity determine what the money supply is.”

The Federal Reserve and its peers around the world are today trying to prevent the money supply from shrinking again.

That was the fear in the “deflation scare” of 2002, which caused the Fed to ordain subzero interest rates, creating not only the bubble in housing but also the collapse of true money values of oil, food and most raw materials.

A true policy wonk, Greenspan thinks only of a political bailout to protect the system, rather than letting the free market correct it. And the government’s current attempts to correct Bernanke’s repeat of the Maestro’s “reflationary error” won’t succeed in the long run. It has not in Japan after 25 years of the same mistaken economic policy.

Note that during both the 1970s and 1990s, policy error periods came during Democratic control of the White House.

The Democrats’ attempt to give all things to all people, who cannot or will not earn them, is going to eventually destroy the United States of America.

The Constitution does not guarantee a life of luxury to everyone, only the unaleniable right to “life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.”

You have the opportunity to work and earn the good life. Nowhere does the Constitution hint that those who work and produce should be required to take care of those who will not or cannot succeed.

Churches and family were responsible for helping the less fortunate originally and as a last resort the “poor houses” would take those with no family, etc.

We have morphed the U.S. into an early version of the socialist countries in Europe. And if we continue down this path, we will eventually become as pitiful as they have become.

If you studied history, you should remember that Spain, England, Holland, Italy, Germany and even France at one time were prominent world powers. But today it is generous to call any of them individually a power. Therefore the birth of ECM, and other associations to increase their leverage.

There is little chance of any of them ever regaining their once powerful positions in the world. And as we continue our downward spiral, there is little hope we will not end up the same. Electing Obama president will only speed it up it.



W.V. Bonds

Cleburne





Backing up Furr



Dear Editor:

 

In response to W.V. Bonds wailing and gnashing of teeth on every subject imaginable and always seeming to blame the Democrats for all that is wrong with his country. 

I have this to say about his most recent diatribe against Jimmie Furr.  Mr. Bonds, I know Jimmie Furr.  Jimmie Furr is a friend of mine.  And, you sir, are no Jimmie Furr!  He is a committed Christian, family man, retired union member, and he just happens to be a Democrat, too. 



Bill Conover

Cleburne







The “people” need a voice



Dear Editor:

 

Editor’s note: This is an open letter to Congressman Chet Edwards.



Congressman Edwards,

Once again, you overpaid political stooges defiantly went against the vast majority of Americans who said “no” to this major bailout of the banking houses, including international banks.

Ostensibly, “we the people” have absolutely no say in the any government matters.

Congressman, this leaves but only one conclusion. The government has become absolute master and ruler over we the people, thus making the American a modern-day slave.

Unlike previous correspondence to you and to the other party, Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison, where y’all politically tap-danced around my most basic questions, I shall endeavor to bring forth the following questions in hope that this time there will be a response.

Are we, the American people, enslaved to this system that is contrary to our republic, by way of the 14th Amendment, which forced the people to give up state citizenship and individual sovereignty to except a U.S. citizenship which places all of us under the complete jurisdiction of the federal government?

After all, a free man would never be subject to any of the despotism y’all placed us under.



Earl G. Dickey

Alvarado