Speak Out A 06/03/03

Educating the public

I'M GLAD Missouri's governor is educating the public on the egregious errors of the state legislature. Their failure to close gargantuan and undeserved corporate tax loopholes has created a revenue crisis in education, health care and other essential programs. The governor should pay no attention to GOP Speak Out spinmeisters.

Conditional support

I'M ALL for helping out our schools. But until they show consistent responsible spending habits that go to education and not administrators, forget about any extra money and quit whining about it.

What I believe

I BELIEVE the Bush tax cuts will boost the economy without hurting vital services. I believe Saddam Hussein hid his weapons of mass destruction so well that he couldn't use them. I believe we are safer now than we were two years ago. I also believe in Santa Claus and the Easter Bunny.

Better than some

GOV. BOB Holden is having to do what the other 49 governors are having to do by making cuts everywhere. Missouri has had worse governors. Remember John Ashcroft?

Loser philosophy

SO THEY think the rich man does all the buying. And the working poor are just losers, according to the Republican philosophy. If all the people making minimum wage and up to $20 an hour would quit buying, big firms would go broke. We're the ones boosting the economy. We're the ones creating jobs. According to the Republican philosophy, if a person doesn't get a good education and has a second-rate job, he's a loser.

A time to vote

GOV. BOB Holden wants to hold a referendum on whether or not to raise taxes on cigarettes and gambling. Let's wait until Nov. 2, 2004, to vote on Holden's governorship instead.

High off the hog

I WANT to comment about the commercial the Democrats are running on TV blaming the Republicans for the Missouri budget crunch. The Democrats want to raise taxes. They're never for tax cuts for the working man. The problem is the money that Gov. Bob Holden and the Democrats have been giving to all their buddies and their special-interest groups. Tell us where this money is going. Before I take a pay cut by paying more taxes, I want to see the people who have been living high off the hog thanks to the taxpayers take a cut.

Caution on taxes

SOMEBODY NEEDS to teach the governor that raising tax rates and raising tax revenue are separate issues. If the governor gets his way and raises tax rates on income, more and more high-income earners and high-income corporations will just leave Missouri and move to states like Florida and Texas where there isn't any income tax. Raising income-tax rates does not raise income-tax revenue. In fact, it causes less revenue. The voters don't want tax increases.

Students need a break

STUDENTS ARE only human. Students not only need a study hall, but they should be able to use it as break time. Teachers have drinks and snacks on their free class time. My children leave at 7 a.m. for the bus stop and get home at 4 p.m. Lunch was the only break they had and most of that was spent waiting in line. If they ask to leave class for the bathroom, points are taken off their grade. Thank God my last one just graduated.

Taking money from ex

I JUST wonder how a man feels when his wife constantly goes to her ex-husband for money. It would make me feel less than a man. If they need money that bad, then both of them need to work instead of taking the ex-husband's money. The ex-husband pays child support and gives his kids what they need, and that should be plenty.