October 3, 2003

The Journal News

Letter to the Editor:

letters@thejournalnews.com

The Money Pit President and the “Do-Nothing” Congress

Here we are thirteen months from our next national election and we are experiencing an interesting phenomenon. On one hand we have the Money Pit President who has spent this country into unprecedented deficits without doing anything to improve the deteriorating rolling stock of the country. With schools, bridges, roads, sewage systems, watersheds, and the power grids of the country suffering from a case of fiscal starvation, the President, like Tom Hanks asks for billions for his Money Pit in Iraq. Most people would probably support his effort there if he hadn’t fabricated most of the information that led the people and Congress to initially support the recent and continuing war. On the other hand we have our new version of the “Do-Nothing Congress”. This term was first used by President Truman to characterize the Republican led Senate and House during the 1948 campaign. We have a Congress that has passed tax relief for multi millionaires, while ignoring health coverage for millions, soaring prescription drug costs, the drainage of American jobs overseas, unprecedented trade deficits, increased crime, rising unemployment, scandals on Wall Street, the profligacy of corporate brigands, global warming, water quality, energy dependency on foreign suppliers, funding for Homeland Security and an endless and growing list of other inadequacies. When President Bush came into the White House, on his full first day in officer, he reflected on a prayer inscribed on a mantelpiece from John Adams, “… that only the wise and honest may rule under this roof.” Can we really believe that that prayer has been fulfilled?

Richard J. Garfunkel