LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
The Next Crisis Will Dwarf This One
Editor, Times-Dispatch:
In the Dec. 20 Insight, Jay Ambrose joined a growing nationwide chorus with his column, "Madoff and the Entitlement Scheme." He likened a current scandal, the Bernard Madoff pyramid scheme that bilked investors of $50 billion, with history's greatest pyramid scheme: the entitlements game now in play by the federal government.Madoff ran his scheme for a couple of decades. The federal scheme has been running since the 1930s and has years to go before total meltdown, which would wreak havoc with national and international affairs. Madoff's scheme lost mere billions, while the federal scheme puts trillions at risk.
More fascinating is that Madoff's and other pyramid schemes require secrecy -- but the federal government itself acknowledges its pyramid scheme and has published warnings of the impending calamity for years.
From the U. S. Treasury's Summary Report of the 2008 Financial Report of the United States Government:
"If the Government is to retain the ability to manage a financial crisis such as the one today, it must eventually address the long-term fiscal imbalance resulting from Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid. The Government's fiscal policies for these programs as currently structured are not sustainable. Without changes, spending for Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid would permanently and dramatically increase the Government's budget deficit and debt leading eventually to renewed financial and economic instability . . . .These large and growing deficits could increase Government debt levels as a percentage of GDP to unprecedented and unsustainable heights -- from 170 percent by 2040 to over 600 percent by 2080 -- far exceeding the historical high of 109 percent that occurred immediately following WWII and far exceeding the Government's ability to fund program expenditures." (Emphases added).
In plainer language, current law will cause Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security to eat the entire federal budget. No money would be left for military, transportation, health, education, research, or anything else.
Bankrupt. Insolvent. Broke.
We can point fingers at elected officials, yet democracy lays ultimate responsibility squarely on voters. If we the citizenry shun hard medicine and continue ignoring this fiscal cancer, who will bail out the U. S. government?
James E. Mahone. Glen Allen.
Corrections Department Should Try Correcting
Editor, Times-Dispatch:
Since the Reagan years, our prison population has exploded. On a per capita basis, the U.S incarcerates more people than any other nation!It costs the taxpayer about $40,000 annually to keep an inmate in a prison. Virginia has 38,000 inmates. Approximately 70 percent of these inmates will return to prison within three years of their release. What is wrong with this picture?
In this coming era of governmental change -- the Obama administration -- isn't it time that the people of Virginia hold the Department of Corrections accountable to correct inmates' behavior while they are incarcerated rather than just warehousing them? Our present system of imprisonment has not worked!
What would happen if the recidivism rate dropped from 70 percent to 30 percent? That would mean that our $40,000 per inmate could be spent to educate the next generation, provide scholarships for the financially strapped college student, provide research grants, improve our roads and bridges, etc.
One way to accomplish this is to recognize that the past and present methods of the Department of Corrections have been ineffective in returning inmates to society. Granted some inmates may never be released back into public for the protection of the public. However, for our economic survival, the remainder must be rehabiltated to the point that they are productive citizens, contributing to society and not draining society of its resources.
Eric W. Johnson. Woodbine.
Coal's Benefits Exceed Costs
Editor, Times-Dispatch:
Catherine Strickler's letter criticizes the governor's commission on climate change for not recommending policy that obstructs the construction of Virginia coal-fired power plants. Moreover, she expresses a belief that CO2 is responsible for a significant amount of global warming and warns that our security is at risk.To the contrary, the commission's failure to recommend governmental measures against industry was an exceptionally wise decision. Interfering with either new or existing coal-fired plants can only result in one thing: driving up the cost of electricity. As for CO2-generated climate change, that's making a mountain out of a molehill. Even if there were an immediate and worldwide termination of all anthropogenic CO2 emissions, the effect on atmospheric temperature would be negligible.
I agree with Strickler's statement that "we need to support our legislators in voting for the long-term public good." But what is the public good? Surely, it isn't the creation of policy that results in higher cost and delivers little benefit.
David Brantley. Colonial Heights.
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Reader Reactions
SCguy-I am only interested in the “message.“ The messengers on either side need no help from me. I have been involved with the science for 40 years and do not need to rely on any catch “phrases” either from the right or the left. And since when has science become a matter of ideology?
I have been accused of “not caring about my children and grandchildren” and “not being a good steward of the planet” because I do not subscribe to the current theory of CO2 emissions as the precursor of Armageddon. I have studied the science as a hopefully well informed civilian and I simply do not find it credible.
The idea that because I am not a subscriber automatically relegates me to the “right wing” Rush Limbaugh, Fox News group is something I also heard ad nauseum.
If my information on global warming came from television talking heads or radio personalities I wouldn’t dare, as some do, to voice my opinion in this public forum.
A confession:
Some years ago, a bunch of my pot smoking friends & I got together, concerned about the greed of large corporations. Particularly the oil companies. “How can we best take these greedy tyrants down”, we asked one another.
Well, one day during a particularly hot summer—I think it was 1974 or 1967—one of us had vision. The planet is getting warmer—its about to melt! “Satan is behind this!“ said one of us. Another joked, “Yeah, and big oil is Satan!“
A movement was begun.
Since that time, a lot of us had made it into college & found our way into research. We have loosely affiliated chapters all over the world. Its been gravy since.
Seems like “greta” knows all the right-wing phrases, exaggerations, and stereotypes used to marginalize anyone who dares take a view on global warming that’s not in lock step with the oil companies’, but that’s why you should worry even more about it. The “attack the messenger, not the message,“ is the approach that has always been used to attack those who tell the truth. Fox News, Rush Limbaugh, et al, actually do the country a great service. If you’re serious about finding the truth, listen to the message of whomever they’re attacking.
Anthropoligical CO2 global warming is a scientific farce. Most people never bother to actually investigate any of the science they just parrot catch phrases and sound bites.
I would be willing to bet that many people who spout the “coal is evil” mantra have no idea how much wattage the Tri-State Area uses on a yearly basis. Do not know how much more will be required in the next decade.
With uninformed citizens howling, no more coal mining, no new nuclear plants,where do these people imagine the energy is going to come from?
As evidenced by the latest global warming in Poland the experiments in Europe have been a dimal failure. They are all spouting pollution piety and in the meantime they are busily building new coal fired plants as quickly as they can.
I agree with Mr. Brantley that if there were an immediate and total cessation of all CO2 emissions the effect would be negligible.
If we were to listen to the uninformed
groups that chain themselves to chain-link fences and lay down in front of police cars we could end up reading with lanterns and cooking with fire.
Anyone who wants true “sustainable living” can start a commune. It worked real well in the 60’s.
When Dick Cheney’s and Alberto Gonzales’ names came up in prisoner abuse scandal in a for-profit prison in Texas, Americans learned for the first time that the nation’s leading policy maker in the Justice Department was invested in private prisons. The prison industry is growth industry, so doing more with less and incarcerating more and more people is good for the corporate bottom line. No wonder these people were so much at war with the Bill of Rights and the writ of Habeus Corpus.
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