More for less More for less ADVERTISING A few weeks ago, someone wrote a letter to the editor complaining about having to waste time and gas licensing his car because his safety-sticker info had not been processed in a timely
More for less
A few weeks ago, someone wrote a letter to the editor complaining about having to waste time and gas licensing his car because his safety-sticker info had not been processed in a timely fashion. Now, the same thing has happened to me.
How terrible! But, whose fault is it, really?
As long as we refuse to increase taxes or the number of county employees, this is what we should expect. And, it will get worse, not better, no matter how we complain. The population and number of cars won’t stop increasing just because it’s inconvenient for me.
Why should I expect county government to repeat the miracle of the loaves and the fishes for my convenience? Governments are formed to provide services for the public, but no one should expect great service from public employees trying to do more with less, year after year.
I pay more at the grocery store, more at the gas station and more everywhere else. I have to pump my own gas, bring my own bags, check-out my own purchases, and carry them to my car — unless I can trap the rare employee who isn’t on break.
We pay more and more, for less and less — even for things we cannot live without — but that is OK, because the CEO needs a bigger yacht. Yet, we expect local government to get by on less, provide more AND listen to us gripe about standing in line.
Carol R. Campbell
Keaau
Yes, facts matter
In response to Chris Yuen’s letter, “Facts matter” (Tribune-Herald, July 21): The fiscal year (Oct. 1 to Sept. 30 for the federal government) 2008 budget deficit attributed to the Bush administration would have been approximately $800 billion less if the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (ARRA) had not been passed and signed into law by President Obama. This is the “shovel-ready jobs act” for which President Obama takes credit.
If the ARRA is not included in the original FY 2008 budget, so that it doesn’t get credited to the last Bush budget, then the rates of growth of federal government spending are subsequently much higher in the Obama years, as are the budget deficits.
But wait! Who proudly takes credit for ARRA? President Obama seems to want the credit. Remember, this is the Act that started to “drive that car out of the ditch.”
If ARRA is counted as Obama-related expenditures, then virtually all of Yuen’s assertions in paragraphs two through four of his letter are wrong due to a cherry-picked, but erroneous, starting value.
It cannot be both ways: Either Bush should get the credit for ARRA and Obama should stop blaming what he inherited, or Obama’s push for greater government expenditures via ARRA should rightly be credited to him — meaning Yuen’s knee-jerk repetitions of faulty talking points regarding Obama’s small deficits and low increases in government expenditures need revision.
There is an $800 billion (pound) gorilla in the FY 2008 budget. Whose is it?
David Hammes
Hilo
