In a recent letter, North Dakota Sen. Kent Conrad made it clear that the sky is falling and this country is doomed, at least in his interpretation of the recently passed tax bill passed by Congress and signed into law by President Bush.
First of all, there is nothing more the minority party hopes for is a weak economy going into the 2004 elections. They will have you believe otherwise, but to have a strong economy and other concerns under control spells further trouble for their election chances. So talking down the economy and scare tactics are their strategies.
It is quite humorous to hear the liberal left express concern over the budget. Without question the left is the high tax, big spending party in this country. Both parties spend too much of our tax money, but I would by far trust our tax money to the majority party than Conrad's party.
They say they want a balanced budget, but along with more government spending, they will raise your taxes to do so. I never hear from the liberal left that the government spends too much money, only any tax cut is bad and always goes to the "rich." They are great to pitch class warfare to enhance their ideas.
Also, it has been reported that in 2001, $18.3 billion of tax money was "lost," and written off, as nobody knows where it went. The senator was the chairman and is currently the ranking member of the Budget Committee. So where did this money go?
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It is also reported the "pork-barrel" spending has added some $162 billion to the federal deficit since 1991. This includes the all-important study of DNA for bears at a cost of $1 million, and $7.8 million for sea turtle research in Hawaii. Other pork spending includes $300,000 for a kitchen design project, and $202,500 for facilities for the National Peanut Festival. All in Washington, D.C., are guilty of these and other pork spending and need to be watched and questioned with our tax money in the future. It is also estimated that up to 40 percent of all money sent to Washington is wasted, lost or spent in redundant programs.
There has been criticism of corporations and their accounting practices; I think the U.S. government should look at their own accounting and spending before they take away more of our money.
Bob Lebacken
Reynolds, N.D.
