Money down the drain

Evidently, our federal government can’t resist throwing taxpayers’ hard-earned money into one giant black hole after another. We now stand as majority stockholder in a car company that will never succeed. Fifty billion taxpayer dollars down the tubes and no doubt that is just the start of the money drain from “owning” GM.

I’d like to know what gives this government the right to make all of us the unwilling participants in risky stock ownership. At first it was throw money at GM to keep it from bankruptcy and now it is throw money at GM to get it through bankruptcy.

Tomorrow China can take over the Hummer plants and jobless Americans will line up by the hundreds of thousands to take those jobs at a pittance compared to what GM will continue to pay its UAW employees.

We’ll never live to see a profitable GM. And what’s next? California is asking the government to bail it out because its residents refuse to allow a state tax rate hike.

That means every working American will soon be subsidizing all the Californians. 

Americans can soon see their federal taxes raised to support California as well as all the big corporations too big, too fat and too greedy to fail. Americans, particularly middle Americans, are being taken for a ride.

Whatever happened to “No taxation without representation”? We send our so-called representatives to Washington and they immediately become puppets to the rich lobbyists.

Can this insane government see a tax revolt coming? I can.

Debbie McPherson,

Aubrey

Criticizing Obama

First, Roger Horrell [Letters, May 27] it is foolish to criticize Barack Obama for using a teleprompter. At least the man can read and speak, which is more than we’ve had for the last eight years. And by the way, he is just as eloquent a speaker without a teleprompter. And he is twice as intelligent as G Bush

Furthermore, he is keeping us informed as opposed to the secret government; he is respecting our constitutional rights; he reaches out to the other side; he has appointed more GOPs; he doesn’t torture; G Bush ruined our reputation around the world; Barack Obama is improving our reputation around the world; he cares about all of us, not just the rich; he is not hiding the truth about global warming, he is keeping us safe, which G Bush didn’t do, he is working night and day to solve ever-worsening problems that he has inherited from Republicans.

GOPs have damned Obama for shaking Hugo Chavez’s hand. This harkens back to when Dick Nixon visited Red China. Nobody said anything.

But you see, Dick Nixon is the only man who could have gone to Red China; if a Democrat had gone he would have been called a communist. That’s a trait of the GOP.

Now, go ahead and damn him for not wearing a lapel pin.

Jim Stodola,

Denton

Taxes in disguise

I applaud our city officials for finding ways to reduce the increase in spending [Page 1A, June 3]. Most of us are having to reduce spending, not just the increase.

However, Mr. Langley is either being disingenuous or naive when he says “it [increase in franchise fees by city-owned utilities] would not lead to higher rates for ratepayers.”

A fee is a tax in disguise. I currently pay franchise fees to Verizon, CoServ and Charter. Those companies do not pay those fees; I pay those fees.

At some point our taxing entities need to learn a basic economic fact. That is that businesses do not pay taxes (or fees); their customers do.

I also have a concern that a city-owned monopoly should be charged a “franchise” fee to begin with. The city can raise rates, which raises revenue, which increases the taxes and fees we pay. Not only do we pay higher rates, but we also pay higher fees and taxes.

No wonder taxpayer money was spent to lobby the state to exempt city-owned municipals from deregulation. It would have meant taxpayers would have the option of choosing a different electric company. That would cause the city to lose the profits, taxes and fees it collects from us now.

By the way, why are those fees not on my statement from the city as they are from everyone else?

Stephen J Sullivan,

Denton

Harassing developers

It seems as though the cities, because of reduced revenues, have decided to become a collective pain in the butt to all developers.

The current rash of Nazism is ticketing its citizens for everything they can think of. We have seen a rash of complaints for mowing debris and unauthorized access to property even though posted.

The random attacks on some while the adjacent property owner is unscathed are quite unfair. Do they have a brother-in-law at City Hall or just political juice?

The procedure has been to mow the property once in the spring and a couple of times in the summer to maintain a relatively short level of growth. This now seems to be not enough as we have mowed some properties four times this spring because of city harassment.

In addition, we have been harassed about maintaining city or highway property adjacent to roads or highways. Where and when will this stop?

The complaints have also included such ridiculous things as complaints for signs requesting clean fill dirt and the dirt being requested. The old saying that they have nothing else better to do certainly rings true during this current assault by the Nazi patrol.

This is currently costing us thousands of dollars while the marketplace is suffering from a depression due to scared-for-their-lives bankers.

Where do we go from here to stop the across-the-board, city-by-city random attack on developers and property owners who pay taxes?

Byron Ballas,

Denton

Freedom

This letter is written in response to a letter to the editor published on May 31 regarding federal regulation. I guess I am confused.

What exactly do you want to do that the federal government is prohibiting you from doing? What freedom has been denied you?

I am glad our government steps in to ensure that the food I eat is safe, that children are immunized, that there are speed limits governing our roads, that there are child labor laws, and so many other protections provided by the federal government.

Federal regulation has reached such heights because people have demanded its service.As our country increased in population, we expected more of it.

I appreciate the questions you pose, but am concerned about the generalities included in it.

Amy Holt,

Denton