Las Vegas Sun

March 28, 2024

letter to the editor:

Placing the blame where it belongs

The Jan. 18 letter to the editor "GOP is a party in disarray right now" has many errors. Let’s tackle the debt first. At the end of the Bush administration, the national debt was about $10 trillion. It’s now more than $17 trillion, so let’s put that $7 trillion difference where it belongs: on the Obama administration.

From 2006-10, Democrats were in control of both houses of Congress. They could have cut spending if they were inclined to do so.

The letter also mentioned the disparity between CEO salaries and worker wages. There is no way to accurately determine an hourly pay rate for CEOs because they don’t work a 40-hour week and their salaries are an annual figure. The poverty level for a family of four in the 48 contiguous states is just more than $23,500. The average worker wage from the AFL-CIO website is more than $41,000 a year. That’s hardly poverty wages.

The errors continue. The House hasn’t passed any jobs bills? My search says that since 2011, the House has passed 40 jobs bills. The Senate under the leadership of Harry Reid hasn’t acted on those bills. The House has also passed two farm bills: one in 2012 and one in 2013.

I’d like to add one other topic that the letter didn’t address. Unemployment insurance is a guarantee that people will remain unemployed. One study that I read recently stated that people who are on unemployment insurance don’t start looking for a job until their checks are about to run out. Those people whose 99 weeks ran out in December have had ample time to find a job.

The White House declared the recession over in 2012, so there should be no need to continue unemployment insurance.

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