Politicians’ grand plans are mere illusions
To the editor:
Mitt Romney has an economic plan, as President Obama also claims to have, and both major political parties offer competing plans of some degree or other. All of these plans are long-range, extending over at least 10 years.
Of course, all but the shallowest among us know from the past that in our system of government, with changing Congresses and presidents, today’s plans never bind tomorrow’s government. Thus, these plans provide a vacuous political illusion at best, and an intentional fraud at the worst.
Many plans from these Washington politicians are cunningly crafted to placate our escalating rage over the harmful impact to our people as a result of government abuse. “I have a plan” is but a prelude to a repetitious confidence game. Irrespective of public pronouncements, political parties desire a large, controlling and domineering government, with the only conflict being which part will rule over our formerly free citizens.
All of these plans include a government-controlled economy and commercial system, with excessively increased central regulation. Even though almost all of these programs have proved to be dismal failures, the current politicians remain convinced of the collective wisdom of their inept colleagues. And so they devise plan after plan to fix the damage of their prior plans.
One can’t ignore a striking resemblance to the many old Soviet Communist Party “five-year plans” concocted by the Kremlin elitists and imposed upon the people. They were all such monumental failures that the Communist Party’s socialist economy became a universal joke throughout the Cold War until its collapse.
Central government planning doesn’t work.
JOHN TOBIN
LAS VEGAS
Too few horses
To the editor:
Sept. 21 is emblazoned in my mind because it’s the day I saw wild horses in their natural habitat of Cold Creek, thanks to a Spring Mountain Alliance tour. Watching the horses drinking from a spring-fed pond and seeing the young ones frolicking in the water is a sight I hope to see again and again.
Sadly, that hope is slated to be quashed in February 2013, when the Bureau of Land Management and the U.S. Forest Service are allowed to reduce the wild horse herd to non-viable numbers. Yes, these federal agencies are managing America’s wild horse and burro heritage herds to extinction at taxpayer expense.
The BLM consulted noted equine geneticist Gus Cothran about maintaining viable wild horse and burro herd sizes. Mr. Cothran has repeatedly stated that a minimum of 100 breeding-age adults should be in a horse and burro herd to avert inbreeding, loss of fecundity, foal deformities, physical defects and ultimately non-viability. In 2007, the BLM reduced the Cold Creek herd to just 80 wild horses, four burros and a mule. This flies in the face of Mr. Cothran’s research and is also a flagrant violation of the 1971 Wild Free-Roaming Horses and Burros Act, which states that the BLM is to manage these wild horse and burro herds on the lands they were given in 10 Western states.
Many of America’s wild horse and burro herds have been completely removed in cruel helicopter roundups from their legal rangelands and replaced by corporately and privately owned cattle, plus gas, oil, mining and solar projects. This is a travesty, not only for the rapidly diminishing wild horse and burro herds, but also for Americans and international tourists who want to see our Western heritage preserved.
LINDA LEE
COSTA MESA, CALIF.
Fair share?
To the editor:
In response to Glenn Cook’s Sept. 23 column, “Oceguera profits from industries he rips”:
Congressional candidate and Assembly Speaker John Oceguera retired from the North Las Vegas Fire Department last year at age 42 after 20 years of service. He will collect a pension worth about $100,000 every year until he dies.
If he lives 50 more years, we will pay him more than $5 million in retirement pay, plus whatever health benefits he gets. If he averaged $100,000 in income during the 20 years he worked, he made about $2 million.
We the taxpayers of Clark County likely will pay him much more to retire than we ever paid him to work. I believe this is a basic problem that needs to be changed. In President Obama’s words, “Everybody needs to pay their fair share.”
RONALD E. MEYER
LAS VEGAS
Hiding from the public
To the editor:
When I read in the Sept. 5 Review-Journal that Sen. Harry Reid told the Democratic National Convention, “Never in modern American history has a presidential candidate tried so hard to hide himself from the people he hopes to serve,” I thought he was speaking of the current president.
We still haven’t seen President Obama’s college records.
As far as Republican Mitt Romney’s tax returns are concerned, if anything was amiss or illegal, where was the IRS?
Sen. Reid, when will the taxpayers be able to see your tax returns?
C. JACKSON
LAS VEGAS
