GOP insists on driving away moderate voters
Re: “Who are you calling ‘extreme’?,” June 14
Cal Thomas is right to be concerned about Republicans being labeled “extreme.” However, the simple fact is that the GOP has brought this label upon itself by actively driving away moderates.
Thirty years ago, I would have been a staunch Republican. I am a fiscal conservative, believe in small government and recognize the importance of industry to our way of life. But the modern GOP has shunned people like me out of the party.
Instead of judging politicians based on their economic policies, the GOP now employs a litmus test of Neanderthal-level social ideology that insists evolutionary theory is false, climate change is a hoax, and rabidly clings to a dying definition of marriage.
As much as I want to be a part of Republican fiscal policies, I refuse to become a laughingstock to the rest of the educated, civilized world.
Matthew J. Beck
Washington
District is far removed from Control Board days
Re: “D.C. Council goes from skillet to fire,” June 13
Once again, Jonetta Rose Barras would like to impose her views of what is appropriate for the D.C. Council over that of the people’s. She clearly doesn’t like Michael Brown. But the fact is that the people elected him, so to say that Brown shouldn’t head a committee or can’t be trusted is ridiculous.
Barras also claims that the people she spoke to are “absolutely disheartened” and feel the city has taken a leap backwards to the pre-Control Board era. I hope she set those people straight about why Congress instituted the Control Board in 1995. It was because of the precarious financial position the city found itself in after Mayors Marion Barry and Sharon Pratt Kelly vastly overspent the District’s budgets.
Today we are the envy of many other cities and states for our solid economy, with 14 years of balanced budgets, a billion dollar reserve fund, a growing population and billions in the economic pipeline.
Peter D. Rosenstein
Washington
Congress uses military as vending machine for favors
Congress’ approach to the budget is always to raise taxes and never to address the real problem, which is its addiction to spending.
There are too many conservatives who are afraid of any cuts to the defense budget.But the defense budget would shrink exponentially if members of Congress would just let the military set the priorities, instead of treating them like a vending machine for the redistribution of federal money to their personal congressional districts.
A congressman may say he wants to close tax loopholes in the system.The problem is that every one of the loopholes was created by Congress as a favor to one campaign contributor or another.
Their “we can cut everywhere except loopholes for my contributors”approach enables the rich to get richer and gives an unfair advantage to one firm over its competitors.The solution is to get rid of all the tax loopholes, and then ask every citizen and every corporation to pay the same percentage.
Randy Mathson
Alexandria
