We have a heritage of helping others

Tom Harper, Henderson

Monday, Feb. 28, 2011 | 2:04 a.m.

I recommend as a must-read the sobering Presidents Day column by The Washington Post’s E.J. Dionne, “The Tea Party is winning,” which was published Feb. 21 in the Las Vegas Sun. It is sobering because it points out, among other things, that:

Only a body dominated by millionaires (i.e., the Tea Party) could define “shared sacrifice” as telling nurses’ aides and coal miners that they have to work until age 69 while sharply cutting taxes on wealthy people. And the Employee Benefit Research Institute found that people over 75 were more likely than other groups — including children under 18 — to live on revenue equal to or less than 200 percent of the poverty line.

This great nation was created and has long endured on the true principles of shared sacrifice. In the Preamble to the U.S. Constitution, we recognized the need for shared sacrifice when we affirmed that “We the people ... in order to form a more perfect union ...” We reaffirmed that principle in enacting such necessary programs as Social Security and Medicare.

Dionne correctly recognized that President Barack Obama is not at fault for his budget proposals and that during his State of the Union he made a good case that this is a good time for more government.

As a parent of two children who are in their 20s, I, like many others, want to reduce the deficit. However, at the same time, I am old enough to know that this nation has never turned its back and refused to provide a safety net to those less fortunate who are our neighbors, friends and family members.

As Dionne accurately points out, “If politics is reduced to a crabbed and crabby accountant’s war, Obama loses” and more importantly, “The country will too.”