Publisher's Letter: A New Year’s Wish List

We’re hearing the word change a lot from the presidential candidates and as the campaign for the white house heats up, we’ll be hearing it even more. God knows we need change. Most Americans think the country’s headed in the wrong direction, and we need to make some big changes in Washington — both in elected officials and in policies. For what it’s worth,  here are the changes I’d like to see.

A sensible immigration policy that protects our manufacturing employment base.  Owners of manufacturing concerns has told me that if send illegals back to Mexico, it will be nearly impossible to replace them.  The position has some merit: if they truly have been here working,  paying taxes and filling jobs that Americans don’t want,  it makes much better sense to provide a road to citizenship.  It makes better sense to focus on deporting illegals with criminal records and to stop new illegals from crossing the border once and for all.

Iraq: it’s time to get out. Never should have been there in the first place. Still have a hard time understanding why, when almost all the hijackers were from Saudi Arabia, we had to invade Iraq — especially when there were  no WMDs. When I hear that “the surge is working,” I get incensed.  Who benefits?  All this means to the American taxpayer is huge deficits and exploding national debt.  Here’s a novel idea: why not a surge in rebuilding America’s crumbling infrastructure,  affordable education,  a rational and fair tax structure (eliminate the AMT for our evaporating middle class), and, last but certainly not least,  affordable health care. 

Please, whatever  you do in this election season, don’t let the politicians get away with saying they won’t raise taxes, but their opponents will. It’s just double talk. Remember when  Bush said that Iraq’s oil would pay for the war? Maybe taxes haven’t been raised, but we’re paying for this war big time. What’s it costing to heat your home this winter? How much does it take to fill your gas tank now?  The rising cost of oil has also driven up the cost of groceries, airline travel. The litmus test should not be whether  taxes go up or down, but whether  your purchasing  power  increases or decreases.

Lastly, I have not made up my mind on which part I’ll vote for, but I can take some comfort in knowing that any new administration — Republican or Democratic — just has to be better than the one we currently have.