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THE WEIRS TIMES & THE COCHECO TIMES, Thursday, December 1, 2011  


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and so subverts our de- mocracy. But you don’t see that.


You say “the winners in this ruling are the vot- ers”! Why? Because you say we’ll have ac- cess to “nearly limitless information”—never mind that it is “information” of the questionable, distort- ed, dishonest or biased kind, since we’re talking mail and TV campaign ads. Most of these are about as trustworthy and truthful as spam offering organ enhancements or a fortune, at the click of a link. The purpose of adver-


tising is not to impart information, Mr. Guinta, as you well know; it is to sell something—in this case, a candidate. Let’s face it, corporate interests


  Rt  5 nio t ort Weirs Bea  • 0 • wwwFunsotom ADVOCATES from 9


tions would have amount- ed to changing the ten- year rate of growth of fed- eral spending from 4.4% to 4.3% - clearly shaking the foundations of our economy to their core. “Yet even this pathetic


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little reduction was too far. How is that possible? Deficits are major news around the world. Ireland, Greece, Portugal, and Italy are all having significant problems attributed large- ly to their deficits and burgeoning debt. Spain threw out its government this week over economic concerns. Both American political parties profess a concern over growing debt and a determination to do something about it. Yet nothing happened. “Politicians in Wash-


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ington don’t balance the budget because they don’t have to balance the bud- get. Without a requirement to do so, there is always an excuse to let someone else do it next year or avoid making a tough decision. Deadlines and require- ments set guideposts for our actions and create a schedule for their comple- tion. In school, almost no one completes a project before a deadline. Rather, the deadline guides our actions. “The only real way to get the giant statesmen in


that sell a candidate own that candidate. You really think a decision that re- sults in selling more and more wholly owned can- didates is a good deal for voters? Are you kidding? That’s some nice spin


you’ve got going on, but we voters aren’t dumb enough to buy it. You may spin away, but most of us know just what you’re selling—it’s old-fashioned political corruption. Since you were named one of the 14 most corrupt legis- lators in Washington, this is exactly what I would expect from you.


Susan Mayer Lee, NH


Congress to balance the budget is to force them to do so with precisely this mechanism. In the 1980s, the Gramm-Rudman bud- get law forced Congress to act. It set up a series of gradually lower targets to get the deficit to zero. “Congress can and ought


to do this in a politically agnostic way. Debates over balanced budget amend- ments include provision to establish preferences for one philosophy or another. Worse, there is a time lag before an amendment could be adopted. That doesn’t mean we shouldn’t adopt one, it’s just that we shouldn’t wait in the meantime. “A new Gramm-Rudman


could set targets over six years to reduce the deficit to zero. The target would specify nothing at all ex- cept a deficit target. How we got there would still be a subject of debate be- tween people who wanted to raise taxes (a bad idea) and people who wanted to cut spending (a good idea). “Politicians can’t be both-


ered to act. We need to stop giving them a choice.” Now is the time for discus- sion - with us!


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