Are we going in the right direction?
Editor, OBSERVER:
Isn't it amazing how the unemployment rate dropped from 8.3 percent to 7.8 percent three weeks before the presidential election?
With Christmas around the corner, they can count on part time seasonal hiring to make us think the economy is recovering. Thousands of workers for Lockheed Aircraft have just been notified that their jobs are in jeopardy because of President Barack Obama's cuts to the military budgets.
Obama might as well have stayed home for the first debate; he was lost without his teleprompter. Al Gore suggested that it might have been the altitude in Denver that affected him that night. However, he recovered quickly the next day, speaking to a large crowd of supporters. He sounded just like the Rev. Jeremiah Wright speaking to his congregation. I think he missed his calling. Maybe he should have been a preacher, along with a community organizer.
Our president refers to the killing of our ambassador and three others (two of them ex-Navy SEALS) as a bump in the road. Our ambassador requested extra security and asked for a DC3 Aircraft to be on standby in case of an emergency, but he was denied by the White House. Our relations with the countries in the Middle East are about finished, and al-Qaeda is as strong as ever, they are not on the run as President Obama states.
Where has our leadership gone? There were 30,000 people slaughtered in Syria, yet our government never wants to speak about it. Third World countries are now looking at the United States as a paper tiger. Our president did manage to push his health-care bill through, and now it's his green energy policy he's trying to sell to the American people. His theory is by raising the price of gas, electricity, and oil, we'll have to buy electric cars, windmills, and solar panels.
My question is: Who can afford it? Back in the 1950s, gas was 21 cents a gallon. The cost of utilities and groceries has skyrocketed. Whatever happened to the Public Service Commission? Do they still exist?
Joe Biden asked a group of people how many family members of theirs have served in Iraq or Iran? Come on Joe, wake up, it's Afghanistan, not Iran, at least not yet. Remember hope and change? Well I think after the last four years, we're all hoping for a change. It's all up to the voters. Vote for the charming fellow with all the smiles, or vote for the other candidate who knows how to turn things around and get our country moving again.
PHILLIP MASLAK Sr.,
Dunkirk
No Labels wants Congress to work
Editor, OBSERVER:
It is no surprise to hear that Congress is broken. It is governed by a system that puts political point scoring ahead of working with the other party to solve America's problems, such as the impending fiscal cliff at the end of the year.
Standoffs between the two parties have left our government scrambling for last minute, Band-Aid-like fixes to keep itself barely sustained, kicking the can down the road time and time again. Congress is even unable to come together to pass a budget and all appropriations bills before the Oct. 1 fiscal deadline - they haven't done this since 1996, and have only done this four times in the past 60 years. With no budget, our elected officials have free rein over how they spend taxpayers' money. Spend first, ask questions later; that is the mindset of Congress.
No Labels, a grassroots movement of more than half a million Democrats, Republicans and independents, wants our government to work again. One initiative they have proposed to solve Congress' budget woes is "No Budget, No Pay," which would withhold pay for members of Congress if they fail to pass a budget and all 12 appropriations bills on-time.
The legislation of No Budget, No Pay has 91 co-sponsors in both the House and Senate, and it continues to gain momentum in Congress. After all, this is common sense; if someone doesn't do his or her job, then why should they get paid?
It's time for our elected officials to work together and do the jobs voters have elected them to do in Washington. No Labels recognizes this public frustration with both parties and is fighting to end the partisan gridlock that is plaguing Congress. To learn more, visit the website www.NoLabels.org and check out the organization's 12-step "Make Congress Work!" action plan.
GREGORY FOX,
Silver Creek
