HS requisites a waste only if teen plans to be
Re: the Monday article “More math, science in store for HS students”:
Elyse Riesgo’s parents and teachers are exactly right!
She won’t need half of the things she is required to study in high school – unless, that is, she plans to think for herself later in life.
JOE SPITLER
retired teacher
Paul didn’t cross lines; GOP double-crossed us
The 1964 presidential candidacy launched a short-lived revolution in the Republican Party.
As a college student, I shared the same vigor and efforts for Barry Goldwater now expressed by University of Arizona students for Ron Paul.
The two are similar, with unquestionable integrity.
Ron Paul was an early supporter of the Libertarian Party, which grew from the Republican sellout to the religious conservatives.
I read that Ron Paul is out of the mainstream Republican Party. The reverse is true; the mainstream Republican Party sold itself to the highest bidder.
Had it remained true to the constitutional conservativism of Goldwater and Paul, it would win next year’s election.
The public is fed up with a paltry 11 percent approval of Congress, and only when people such as Paul are elected will that integrity be restored to a Congress that is also for sale to the highest bidder.
America wants change; we are fed up with both parties. I will vote for that change with a primary vote for Ron Paul.
BOB DAYS
retired
Gov’t a greater threat than migrants, wildlife
U.S. Rep. Raúl Grijalva is working to bring sanity to handling of immigration and should be commended.
Who should not be praised is Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff, who is responsible for bulldozing the landscape as well as environmental protections and citizen rights.
The laws he is circumventing were designed to safeguard wildlife, clean water and clean air as well as human health and safety.
This is all an attempt to keep us “secure.” Secure from what, the jaguars that travel between Mexico and the United States?
I feel more threatened by our federal government than I do by anyone or anything that’s crossing the border.
There is some hope to be found in the Borderlands Conservation and Security Act of 2007, which would allow consideration of security options other than a fence and would minimize damage to our natural resources. Let’s show our support for this important bill.
HOLLY SHINN
Create a safety net for Social Security
The Social Security Trust Fund’s status was best explained by former President Clinton in his 2000 budget.
He said no material assets are in that fund.
Social Security runs out of money to pay retirees by 2017, not 2041, because the trust fund is filled with IOUs.
Congress agreed in 1981 to collect more payroll taxes than needed to pay then-retirees with the idea to “invest” for future retirees.
But it’s illegal for government to invest in the private sector. Each year, government spent the surplus taxes and put non-negotiable Treasury bonds (IOUs) in the fund.
The IOUs even accrue imaginary interest. Once Social Security needs to call on those IOUs, taxes must be increased, government borrowing must increase or retiree benefits must be cut.
The unfunded liability is in trillions of dollars. These are just “paper entries” now, not reflected in America’s public debt. When the government must begin selling real Treasury securities to convert IOUs to cash, public debt will skyrocket.
How much will investors then be willing to pump into the Treasury? At some point, they will lose confidence that America can repay its debt.
Because the IOUs were created by excess payroll taxes, Congress has the right to borrow or retax Americans to make up the cash it expro- priated. If it can borrow or tax us enough to cover the IOUs, Congress must cut all benefits by as much as one-third.
Wake up, Americans! Change nothing for people age 55 or older. But if Congress now would cut promised benefits for future, upper-income retirees and let them take part of their payroll taxes to create Personal Retirement Accounts and benefit from private sector growth, America can reduce its Social Security liabilities and create a solvent safety net system.
CAROLYN S. COX
What lies in the future? Prevent spread to Iran
It’s almost beyond comprehension how far this administration will go to perpetuate the lie that is our action in the Middle East.
The American people have got to stop them now. And block the next step in their plan: Iran.
WILL SCHEERER
Green Valley
Troops, contractors shouldn’t be in Iraq
Two members of my immediate family have served tours in Iraq for this criminal war.
The contractors have no business being there.
Cut off all their funding, and bring our poor armed forces home now.
KAREN CHRISTIAN
Vail