People have amnesia about economic morass

It is unbelievable that so many people seem to forget who got us into this economic mess in the first place. It was the Bush administration — and when they left office there was a $10 trillion national debt, and we were heading for a full-blown depression.

President Barack Obama inherited this mess and he is slowly bringing us out of the recession. It took eight years for Mr. Bush to get us into this mess, and it is unrealistic to think that we could get out of it in fewer than two years.

Sharron Angle’s ads about Sen. Harry Reid are false. She says the stimulus bill failed in Nevada. I beg to differ. East Sahara Avenue and North Lamb Boulevard are being repaired, and the signs along the roads credit the stimulus.

Other streets in the valley being repaired have the same signs. Also, Sen. Reid stopped Yucca Mountain from being a storage facility for nuclear waste. And look at all of the energy units being built in Nevada and all the jobs he has saved here. Thanks, Harry.

NORMA STONE

LAS VEGAS

Fat cats

To the editor:

Much has been made of the GOP fat cats who’ve pledged their allegiance to Harry Reid. Well, there’s more there than meets the eye, and it’s not so much about politics as it is personal enrichment.

Nevada is still an insider’s state. We’re small enough to have kept that going all these years. Power, money and gaming have long controlled what goes on here. Many of the otherwise legitimate power brokers cozied up to the mob and the politicians for mutual protection and enrichment.

Now that the mob is gone, the game still goes on with politicians. It’s all about access and favors. Their nails must be worn to a nub with all the back scratching that goes on.

Sharron Angle proved that she was no party lackey while in the Assembly. State Sen. Bill Raggio once said that she was uncontrollable. She didn’t toe the party line, she toed the conservative line, staying true to her principles.

I don’t want these fat cats being granted special access and favors, Democrat or Republican. The least likely politician to fall prey to the political insider trap is Ms. Angle, because she’s already proved it.

Never has it been more important for Nevadans to go outside the political box and comfort zone and elect a rebel. More than anything, I want her to be our vote against this despicable spending spree. I want her to favor of the recall of ObamaCare and to impose fiscal conservatism.

In short, she comes ready-made with those credentials firmly intact. Vote against the fat cats and the insider power brokers.

Tom Justin

Las Vegas

Tax the rich

To the editor:

Of course we should tax the wealthiest 2 percent of Americans. Who else has the money and the wherewithal to hire expensive tax attorneys to find legal loopholes to reduce their taxes every year?

Most ordinary people don’t even know that lawyers like this exist. Why? Because we could never afford them.

The wealthy have been doing this for decades now. I know. I used to work for one of these lawyers in San Francisco. His clientele were loaded and stayed that way.

The 2 percent have the most expensive, competent, thorough legal advice that money can buy. What can I afford? I do my taxes on my own, with no help.

Yes indeed, tax the rich. They have been saving money on their tax debt by using little-known expensive legal means to avoid paying their fair share for far too long

JOAN Gobie

HENDERSON

Pension plan

To the editor:

In response to the recent letter about why Sen. Harry Reid is talking about Sharron Angle receiving benefits from her husband’s government pension and health care:

As a veteran of 20 years in the Marine Corps, I’m sure Sen. Reid is not calling veterans or anyone else who earned a government pension a freeloader.

Instead, the senator is taking Ms. Angle to task for being a hypocrite.

Her campaign platform once included the elimination of certain government programs, including Social Security, which she called welfare. In addition, she once proposed privatizing the Veterans Administration, which would hurt millions of honorable veterans who need help from the VA for mental and physical injuries they suffered while in uniform.

But Ms. Angle feels it’s OK to collect money and health benefits from her husband’s government employment when she’s the beneficiary? You can’t have it both ways.

JAMES CUSTER

LAS VEGAS

Stupid is …

To the editor:

I knew it. I knew it wasn’t my imagination. Las Vegas really is full of dummies.

Until I read Wednesday’s Review-Journal story on The Daily Beast website proclaiming our town No. 1 on the moron meter, I thought maybe this was a global epidemic. But no, we’re at the top of a list.

I was sitting with a co-worker in an employee dining room one morning a few years ago. On the table in front of me was a frozen water bottle I brought to work so I would have cold water throughout the day. My co-worker looked a the bottle and asked, “How did you get the ice in there?”

True story.

Bruce Schowers

Las Vegas