To the Editor:

Mark Meadows and Romney-Ryan believe business can exist and prosper without government, that business owners build their businesses on their own. Obama’s message is that business owners rely on public funded infrastructure to move goods to market, public education to train workers, and public health programs to protect the community and maintain a healthy workforce. He believes that public and private sectors work together to move this country forward.

On the other hand, Meadows and his Republican colleagues hope to dismantle public institutions: privatize schools, prisons, etc. They wish to deregulate banking and Wall Street by overturning Dodd-Frank and create the same scenario that collapsed the economy in the first place. Romney would allow the too-big-to-fail banks to crash and burn rather than use Dodd-Frank’s systematic approach that is less of a shock to the economy of the U.S. and the world.

Romney’s and Meadows’ economic plan moves us in the wrong direction. They would also defund regulatory agencies that protect the workplace, the food we ingest and the air we breathe. They say they’re going to increase oil drilling and natural gas fracking without environmental safeguards. They say gasoline prices are going to be lower as a result. You know that’s untrue by the mere fact that oil companies are exporting gasoline overseas right now. Unless Meadows and Romney are going to nationalize the oil industry to keep American crude here, the product is going to the highest bidder. 

The Romney-Ryan budget has been declared immoral by the Catholic Church. Mark Meadows proudly claims himself a devout Christian but supports the Republican platform that essentially takes from the poor to give to the rich.

The average CEO of a major corporation makes roughly 300 times his lowest paid employee. In the 1960s it was 30 times and the wealthy paid a tax rate of 60 percent. Since Reagan-Bush the corporate elites have whittled it down to less than 36 percent and the country has been going deeper in debt. Due to offshore accounts, some corporations don’t pay any federal tax.  Romney pays a mere 15 percent federal income tax. The unions, representing the middle class, have been and are being systematically attacked by Republican lawmakers across the nation while our wages remain stagnant and our buying power eroded.  The middle class decline in wages and benefits began with Reagan-Bush and are sure to continue with Meadows and Romney-Ryan if elected. Paul Ryan even wants to do away with the minimum wage and it ain’t because he wants businesses to pay you more.

Bill Hodge

Otto