LETTER: Are You Kidding?

The following is a letter to the editor. To submit your own, email michael.ryan@patch.com

By Anne Lentz

Now that the election is getting closer, the campaign ads are getting even more prevalent and more outrageous. Much of the public is starting to tune these ads out, except perhaps families that are just getting home from vacation and have not been exposed to a lot of the rhetoric that is blasting from televisions, radios, and computers.

The latest ad that has turned out to be one of the biggest lies that we have seen is the one that starts out with Bill Clinton signing welfare legislation when he was President, making work a requirement of welfare. The ad says that in July Obama had a plan to get rid of the work part of welfare that Bill Clinton had created so that welfare recipients could sit back and get checks in the mail without getting off of the couch. Bill Clinton immediately said that this ad was totally false, and that Obama did not eliminate the work requirement but allowed the states more flexibility in the work requirement. The Republican Governors, including Romney in 2005, asked for this flexibility. Romney knows what the ad says is a fabrication.

There is another ad that takes something Obama said out of context. It is the one about "You didn't build it". Obama was talking about how government assisted businesses by building the roads, and bridges. For the word challenged, using the word," those", instead of,"it", would have helped, but Obama clearly was talking about how government and business works together.

Taking phrases out of context and then using them in ads is the same as lying.  Yes, we need more honesty in politics, and we certainly don't need fabrications that are made to trick the American public. Who needs a lie-eader like this? (Yes, that is my made up word.)  In fairness, there have been Democratic ads that need help too.

We should continue to call for Romney to put forth many years of his taxes like those, including his father, did before him. If not, we are certainly within our rights to believe that he is hiding something that he does not want us to know.  Romney, in a recent interview with Chuck Todd, said, ( I paraphrase) that he wants to call a truce between the parties and not have anything relating to business, personal issues or taxes fair game.

Is he kidding? Someone running for the highest office in the land does not want his business, personal issues or taxes fair game in an election. I guess he thinks we should just trust him. Now that he is trailing in the polls, he wants to change the rules. With less than three months left till the election, and seemingly losing the battle thus far, Romney wants to appear forthright. It would be nice if the campaigns started out with more civility, but I would say with all that has transpired the rules certainly won't change now.

In order to cut taxes and watch the deficit decrease the way Romney would like to do, he would have to slash entitlement programs and domestic programs which is why he will not give specifics. Now that Romney has chosen Paul Ryan for his VP they will double down on the Ryan Plan, and we can all watch Social Security, as we know it, change. Medicare become a voucher program for private insurance which most likely would not be able to keep up with health care costs, big cuts in Medicaid, education, infrastructure, and big increases in defense spending touted by two men that have virtually no foreign policy experience nor have spent a day in the military themselves. They belong to a party that wants to give large tax cuts to the rich, and lastly, but not least, they want to tell women what medical procedures they are allowed to have.

The GOP wants to pay for things on the backs of those that can least afford it, seniors, the middle class, and the poor. Is anyone ready for this? Do we really want to put more money in the hands of the 1% and wait to see if it will trickle down? It did not trickle down before when they had 8 years to have it work, so why do the Republicans think it will work this time?  More money in the hands of the 99%; however, would boost the economy because seniors, the middle class, and the poor spend money on products and services that they need. With Romney's plan, the 1% will just have more money to stash wherever....perhaps or even likely off-shore.

Speaking of stashing money off-shore, when we purchase items, we should purchase items Made in America and keep our money here. With all of the outsourcing, we need to be diligent about checking the labels when purchasing items so that we can help put people back to work in our country. It will be worth it!

 
Anne Lentz-Windham NH