Blade Editor David Kushma parrots a rambling assessment by several far-left organizations of Mitt Romney's economic plan ("Crunching the Ohio numbers in Romney's plan," op-ed, Sept. 16). He makes no effort to balance these with any moderate or right-leaning assessments.

Unemployment has been over 8 percent for 43 consecutive months. Food stamp use is at an all-time high. Gasoline was $1.84 a gallon when President Obama took office, and is now about $3.85.

His deficits have exceeded a trillion dollars for each year he has been in office. Our national debt is now more than $16 trillion. Could Mr. Kushma find anything to criticize in those numbers?

Perhaps he could look at Mr. Obama's foreign policy. The Afghans, whom we have supported with our blood and money, are killing American troops. Our embassies in the Middle East have been attacked and some of our personnel have been killed.

Mr. Kushma is not crunching numbers, as he claims. It's more like propagandizing.

John Weber

Fulton Township

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Tax returns give a look into priorities

The release of more than two years of Mitt Romney's tax returns is important and necessary.

A tax return is one of the few documents that gives voters a window into a candidate's beliefs. What one does with his or her money tells much about a person's priorities.

If the Romneys are worried about providing President Obama more ammunition for attack on this issue, the Romneys loaded the gun.

Larry Koosed

Middleton Township

Obama, Romney swap meet urged

Both presidential nominees should agree to replace one of the scheduled debates with a swap meet.

Mitt Romney could offer to trade one or more years of tax returns for President Obama's undergraduate transcripts. Maybe Mr. Obama would offer to trade an original birth certificate for three or four years of Mr. Romney's tax returns.

I propose that this be done on stage with an audience that would be allowed to cheer and offer advice, like the audience on a TV game show.

The most important benefit of this swap would be to dispense with the trivia of the campaign and allow the candidates to concentrate on things such as the economy, unemployment, health care, Social Security, the national debt, Syria, and Iran, to name a few things that are more significant than college transcripts and old tax returns.

A side benefit would be the opportunity to see who is the better negotiator -- an important skill for any president.

Don Decker

Springfield Township

Where are funds for this neighborhood?

With thousands of dollars available for a study of the City of Toledo's Thousand Islands intersections at the north end of Cherry Street and Collingwood Boulevard, why are we in the Airport Highway/South Street neighborhood told there are no funds ("3 agencies to fund study of tangle of intersections," July 30)?

All we asked for was a water spigot for our Triangle Garden and a school-crossing traffic light for our children. Our tax-paying residents have to carry water jugs and our children must dodge traffic on Airport Highway. Are we waiting for another child to get hit this year, as one did last year?

Our neighborhood deserves low-cost adjustments to improve our dangerous intersection.

Janet Mohamed

Kenmore Avenue