Letters: Divisive economic pressures

Frenzied spending

YORBA LINDA, Merrill R. Holbrook: So we reopened our federal government and off

Council of Economic Advisers Chairman Jason Furman speaks about the economy post government shutdown at the daily press briefing at the White House in Washington, Tuesday, Oct. 22, 2013. (AP Photo/Charles Dharapak)

they go spending like its all free money. There is little doubt that shutting the government has some negative impacts but when do we rein in the spending? Obama has almost finished his fifth year in office and has added more debt than all presidents from George Washington to Bill Clinton. This included two major world wars unlike any war Obama has had to deal with.

Each month the Federal Reserve reduces our savings' value by issuing about $85 billion of play money backed by nothing but the full faith and credit of the U.S. government. The last real budget was passed under President George W. Bush.

After the shutdown battle we have a temporary agreement that allows spending with no debt limit until February. How does this help?

But here is the real problem: We no longer matter to most of our representatives. Our representatives answer to their party and react indifferently to citizens unless they think they will be voted out. Political parties play games allowing representatives to vote according to citizens' views only if it does not prevent the party from its goal. The party bribes and punishes those who oppose it by withholding committee positions and office space, etc. They reward by giving the same.

The 2014 elections are coming, and we have a fresh set of votes to gauge who we want to stay and who should leave. The few who were unafraid to stand up to the Senate and House majority should be given credit for standing by the position they won office on.

Even if you disagree with them, they are the only representatives who can be trusted.

Crisis Management

SAN CLEMENTE, Jacqueline Cooper: As I read the Register article “Season of uncertainty for retailers” [Business, Oct. 19], I reflected on the reasons for uncertainty and why this has been the case for four years.

Americans should be reminded over and over that since April 2009, the United States has not had a budget passed, because of the Democratic-run Senate. Democrats won't put their intentions out in a budget for all to see. Republicans sent many budgets through the House and the Democrats who control the Senate refused to pass them.

Finally, a “sequester” was instituted, which was President Barack Obama's idea. Even so, he tried to hang the sequester around Republicans' necks because he never thought they would agree to it, but this time they blindsided Obama, and, to his chagrin, it was agreed to.

From the minute the sequester was instituted, the Democrats and Obama have tried to get rid of it, because it limits spending. Obama has gotten most of his agenda through by executive orders, which is unconstitutional. Why our Constitution is allowed to be ignored is beyond me. Why is Obama allowed to rule the American people like some sort of monarch?

He has ruled us into crisis after crisis for almost five years by keeping our eyes on the crisis and not what he does by executive order. This is out of the Saul Alinsky playbook, “Rules for Radicals.”

If it's not an economic crisis, it's some other debacle like Fast and Furious, Benghazi, the National Security Agency and the IRS. Now it's the Obamacare meltdown. This is why there is uncertainty. This is why we have so many unemployed and underemployed.


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