LETTER WAS OFF BASE ON OXLEY BILL

To the editor:

I sure was interested to read Jon Terrell's Aug. 28 letter to the editor. It made me want to do some investigating. Do you know what I found out? Jon Terrell is Tony Heckemeyer's nephew, the son of Tony's sister, Penny, who works on his campaign. What a coincidence.

Next I found out the so-called facts in his letter are way off base and untrue. The Oxley Bill is HR 3000, not HR 2727. This bill was written to change the Superfund law, which many call the lawyers' full-employment law, by using Superfund dollars to clean up toxic sites like the ones we have in or around Malden, Sikeston and Cape Girardeau. So far, fewer than half these sites have been cleaned up, but more than 60 percent of the money has gone to lawyers.

I think Mr. Terrell must have gotten his facts from Mr. Heckemeyer's press releases instead of reading the actual legislation. I found out too that the National Federation of Independent Business, which has 600,000 members and is the biggest small-business group in the United States, is backing the Oxley Bill. Not only that, but a whole lot of Democrats, including Pat Danner from Missouri's 6th District and John Tanner of Tennessee, are also co-sponsoring this bill. I guess they must be tools of the insurance industry too.

I also found out that most of the people giving money to Mr. Heckemeyer, a former judge, are lawyers -- about 80 percent of his contributors, to be exact. These are the real people cleaning up because of the Superfund law that the Oxley Bill is trying to fix. What a coincidence. And who are the real losers? The small businesses and taxpayers who are left footing the bill.

Mr. Heckemeyer reminds me of someone else who's trying to place the blame on something or somebody else. He accuses the "Republican-dominated" press of not getting out the facts about what he is saying. Maybe if he stopped slinging mud, the press might pay attention.

ERVIN ARNZEN JR.

Scott City