This President and his administration were delivered a nation and economy on life support a year ago. No one understood whether the world economy would implode, resulting in a global depression.
Fortunately, we have stepped back from the abyss and the economy is slowly recovering, but all we hear from the media is why are we not yet out of the woods.
After a decade of tax cuts for a chosen few, the hollowing out of the manufacturing base, job losses related to health-care costs that are out of control, and two wars that weren't paid for, accountability for this multitude of sins has fallen on the new President.
The almost universal amnesia of the media is revolting. They stand silently by questioning the new-found religion of the Republican Party, "fiscal responsibility." These recently reborn budget hawks, the very participants in the near demise of the nation, have now become the disciples of financial responsibility.
Have the demagogues of the right and their Republican allies forgotten that the last Republican administration received a government in the black in 2001, which was paying down the national debt, not adding to it?
Now, suddenly it's all about the grandkids. Isn't this new religion grand?
In a decade that saw the first decrease in the standard of living for the American people, who was looking out for the little guy? No one. Now it's all on this President and the press expects instant gratification.
Thomas Joseph
East Northgate Parkway
It's time the Democrats went back to being the party of the people, not the stooge of corporations. If they don't start representing the people, Massachusetts will be only be the tip of the iceberg.
After 40 years of Democratic Party support, I have stopped giving and intend not to vote in the next election unless things change rapidly.
All my former beloved party has done is give to the big banks and auto companies, forcing workers to take big cuts. It wants to give us a health-care bill that does nothing to cut premiums and will cost us money and our lives, with cuts to Medicare to pay for it.
If I had wanted a corporate party, I would have voted Republican. Money may come from the corporations, but Democratic support comes from the people.
Albert Kapusta
Oregon
In predominantly Democratic Massachusetts, state law mandates that residents who can afford health insurance must obtain it or pay a substantial tax penalty and/or wage garnishments.
Yet the Scott Brown victory is billed as independent voters' rejection of a 2,000-page national health-care reform bill that few Democrats have read or fully agree with.
If Americans get saddled with this rush to judgment, largely put together by drug-company and health-care lobbyists, we will have a hard time fixing the excesses in that plan.
Now is a good time to ask elected officials to rethink national health care by putting together a plan that corrects the excesses of Medicare and Medicaid. The message that voters can replace them needs to be sent to Democratic politicians such as Michigan's Rep. John Dingell and Ohio's Rep. Marcy Kaptur and Sen. Sherrod Brown, who are busy pushing this health-care bill down our throats.
Jobs should be the primary focus of government now, not how to spend billions more dollars. Without millions more people back in good-paying jobs, we cannot stop homes from being foreclosed on, school districts from going broke, and firms from laying people off. We don't need more wars, bank bailouts, or expensive health-care bills.
Ernest Ryan
Temperance
The idea that a corporation is a person, and therefore has the same rights as a person, is absolutely ludicrous. A corporation is a legal entity. Individuals don't need the state's permission to exist. Corporations do.
Should a corporation be allowed to buy all the advertising it can afford? Absolutely. But the Supreme Court ("High court sheds limits on campaign spending," Jan. 22)
has confused campaigning with advertising. They are not the same.
Advertising tries to get people to buy a product or service that corporations provide for the understood purpose of making a profit.
Campaigning tries to get a person elected to a political position. Can a corporation be elected to political office? No. People are born; corporations come into existence through the signing of papers. Individuals should determine who our leaders and legislators should be.
The court has unleashed a regrettable folly. Corporations will own elected officials. We might as well put their names on eBay.
Matt Perkins
Heidelberg Road
Now that the Supreme Court has lifted the lid on corporate and union campaign contributions, I envision something straight out of the pages of NASCAR advertising: A presidential hopeful on a campaign trip, wearing a ball cap with a prominent Pfizer patch on the crown and a jacket with a large Conoco logo on the back, followed by his entourage of assistants carrying matching briefcases emblazoned with "Team AIG."
The plane has a big sign on its fuselage announcing: "This space for rent."
Ken Rosenbaum
Leicester Road
I applaud the overall tone of Rose Russell's Jan. 16 op-ed column, "Reid should keep his seat." It's nice to see her express some common sense on this matter.
The problem I have, though, is that if she was writing not about Sen. Harry Reid, but about President George Bush, Sen. Trent Lott, or Gov. Sarah Palin, her piece would have been filled with incendiary remarks calling for investigation and resignation.
Why wouldn't the position Ms. Russell expresses in this column apply to anyone, Republican or Democrat?
Don Birsen
Sylvania
Although Toledo's recycling program is good, some people make more work for those who recycle.
When garbage pickers go through my recycling bin to retrieve aluminum cans, they dump the other recyclables into my regular garbage bin, leaving me to put them back into the correct bin.
Recycling was intended to make refuse collection easier and to save the city and residents money. I pledged to recycle, but because of others, I could be fined or my monthly garbage fee increased.
Robin Hathaway
Delence Street
I was surprised that the Page 1 Jan. 24 Blade article "Dog euthanized after pups weaned" didn't have a picture of Lucas County Commissioner Ben Konop with a tear on his cheek.
Delbert E. Bordner
Fairfax Road
Even if I lived to be 200, I would never understand politicians.
Not one of them can think for himself or herself. They vote not what they think, but what the party says, blindly following the leader like a flock of mindless sheep.
How can we vote these brainless individuals into office?
Karl T. Petersen
Eastbrook Drive