THE PUBLIC MIND: SMALL BUSINESSMAN: HAS SEN. BOND TURNED LIBERAL?

Open Letter to Senator Bond:

Thank you for your unsolicited letter of Sept. 26 that you said had been "PREPARED, PUBLISHED AND MAILED AT TAXPAYER EXPENSE." While I understand your reasoning regarding the so-called, "Family and Medical Leave Bill," the fact of the matter is that any form of this bill remains a potential burden to all businesses, and a further liberal move to take away freedom of enterprise. Your letter, (mailing), in my opinion, is a political ploy to gain votes from liberals.

Decisions regarding unpaid leave should be left up to agreements between individual employees and their respective employers without governmental interference or mandates. Why should I as an employer pay someone for not working?

Business activity has already fallen enough due to the 1990 tax increase bills enacted during the start of a recession! This was foolhardy economics at its worst!

As an economics scholar, I know it is best that governments not raise taxes or pass bills that will cost jobs, especially during the start of a recession, as such actions will inevitably cause "stagflation. " This result of voodoo economic liberalism is the cause that forced two-earner families into the workplace in the first place. Understand that inflation (price creep) is caused by taxation, and if there were no government taxation, the natural economic trend would be that prices would tend to fall (as technological breakthroughs and mass production tend to lower prices).

Raising taxes during a recession causes "staglation" (inflation and a recession).

In 1990, you folks in Washington raised our taxes, and I can assure you, we don't like it one bit. We were particularly disappointed with the "DAC" tax on life insurance.

Taxation and the cost of government regulation is simply passed on to others in the form of higher prices on goods and services (to pay for the increased taxation and ~free lunch programs" such as the "Family and Medical Leave Bill"). Furthermore, to advocate passage of a mandatory "Family and Medical Leave Bill" will further exacerbate the already-troubled American economy, thus deepening the recession, and possibly causing a recessionary "double dip."

In the purest sense, Congress is stealing business people's hard-earned money by passage of liberal "do-gooder" bills such as the "Family and Medical Leave Bill" or its derivatives. Additionally, this bill, contrary to its proponents' contentions, will further erode the family unit by forcing personal family matters into the halls of Congress.

It would be my suggestion that it be mandatory for all Senators and Representatives to take classes in personal finance, economics, and spend time operating a small business, including a course in how to balance checkbooks and realize that it is a criminal act to knowingly and repeatedly write bad checks. Red ink leads to inevitable bankruptcy, and it's no wonder your colleagues don't know how to balance the federal budget!

Have you turned liberal, Kit, or what? Your liberal-like actions here are indefensible.

It is extremely disappointing that a Republican would even try to amend or make concessions to such a bill. It should have been thrown out altogether! Where is the common sense of this bill? Is it constitutional? The Volvo-driving liberals and lawyers will have a heyday with it.

Here's a Legislative Suggestion: For every bill passed, there must be two other laws repealed. Government regulation is overburdening businesses as it is!

We taxpaying American's simply can't afford any more liberal giveaways. It runs against the grain of everything preached by your own Republican Party. Shame on you, my dear Senator!

Sincerely yours,

Robert T. Krone Jr., CLU

Cape Girardeau