Letter to the Editor

Federal government is broken

According to Alan Journet, it is not the system in Washington, D.C., that is broken. He places all blame on the Republican Party.

In doing so, he forgets that many of the same senators and representatives (both Democrat and Republican) wrote the regulations that govern business; sit on the committees that oversee Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, the SEC; voted to bail out the economic institutions deemed "too big to fail," etc. The creation and sale of "derivatives" under their watch created a bubble which nearly brought down the world economy. Creation and sale of "derivatives" continues today. Both parties perpetrated the bailout of GM and Chrysler against the expressed wishes of the taxpayers.

President Obama and the Democrats had full control of the presidency and both houses of Congress for the first two years of his administration. They chose to focus their efforts on a controversial health care bill while millions lost their jobs.

Republicans and Democrats have contrasting ideas concerning how to address this country's economic problems. After nearly three years of Democrat initiatives there is a consensus opinion that the economic policy of this administration is not working. Republicans see no reason to throw good money after bad while the national debt skyrockets and promised jobs fail to materialize.

Our federal government system is broken; that is the problem. It is time to change the system, not just toe the party line and blame someone else.

Robert Trankle, Chaffee, Mo.