Republicans at the public trough

To the editor:

The sanctimonious Republican senator from Pennsylvania, Rick Santorum, is constantly criticizing federal government programs that provide financial help to those in need. However, he apparently thinks affluent Republican senators deserve all the federal help -- that's our tax dollars -- they can get.

Santorum, with his wife and six children, live in a $757,000 home in Virginia, and -- to establish residency in Pennsylvania -- own a modest $100,000 home in Penn Hills, a Pittsburgh suburb. Since it is rented out, there is considerable question as to whether the family has spent a single night in the Penn Hills home. Rather than school their children in Virginia or in a private school paid for by personal funds, Rick Santorum has milked the Penn Hills School District to the tune of $100,000 to pay for his kids to take classes at a cyberschool that conducts its classes via the Web.

It is typical of the current brand of federal Republican representatives to criticize federal programs that provide financial assistance to economically underprivileged Americans, yet take as much advantage of the public trough as they can personally.

Americans need to realize that the federal programs that provide them with financial assistance in their time of need were almost universally proposed by Democratic representatives and almost universally opposed by Republicans. Similarly, while railing against federal support programs, it is typical to find Republicans making sure that they and their corporations get as fat as they can on whatever public money is available.

ALAN JOURNET, Cape Girardeau