The Comet welcomes letters to the editor responding to articles and events in the news. They must include the author's name, address and telephone number. The letter writer's name and city/town will appear in the paper - no exceptions. Letters must be 400 words or less in length. Please send your letters to: editor@carrollcountycomet.com; Letters to the Editor, Comet, P.O. Box 26, Flora, IN 46929 or P.O. Box 179, Delphi, IN 46923; or fax 574-967-3384 or 765-564-2010. By submitting a letter or opinion article, the author grants the Comet the right to publish, distribute, archive or use the work in print, electronic, on-line or other format.

The Great American Auction of 2008

The great American Auction of 2008 is over, and the presidency has been awarded to the highest bidder. The campaign was an obscene exercise of pandering, distortion, and outright lies and I am glad to be done with it. I suppose I should not have been surprised at the nature of the campaign. It was not that much different from other presidential contests of recent years. But I was gullible enough to believe that these two guys were different, that they were men of more character and principle than the typical politician. I took them at their word that they were going to run substantive, positive campaigns. Silly me! Never again will I be so naive.

I was especially disappointed in John McCain, who spent years building a reputation as a straight talker, willing and able to take a principled stand, even when it was unpopular to do so. He has now squandered this hard earned distinction that, in my book, put him head and shoulders above his peers, even in the frequent circumstances where his position was different from mine.

But the grand prize for the most outrageous bidder goes to Barack Obama. He promises to confiscate enough money from 5% of the taxpayers to write a check to the 40% who pay no federal income tax, and reduce the taxes on the remaining 55%. And he will also pay our doctor bills, send our kids to college, and bail out the home mortgages of those who borrowed money and didn't repay it. Along the way he is going to rebuild the nation's infrastructure and of course, "balance the budget". Does anyone really believe this nonsense? Or have so many partaken of the Obama potion of eloquence, charisma, and patronization, that the impossibility of what he says he will do is of no consequence.

To be fair, I'm sure Obama will actually do some of what he promises. The five percent can count on getting gouged. The forty percent will get their checks - these checks will be top priority because they will be his foundation for the great American Auction of 2012. But as one of the fifty-five percent, I'm not counting on any tax relief. I suspect the usual Democratic methodology of taxing the middle class and gutting the military will be the actual modus operandi. But increased taxes from the five percent and the fifty-five percent, still won't provide the trillions he wants to spend. So, he will further escalate the borrowing from The Bank of China, assuming they are willing to lend it to the bankrupt U.S. Treasury. China knows, even if the American voter doesn't, that there is a limit to the percentage of annual tax revenues that can go for interest on the national debt. And they understand the consequences of the "inflate the currency" or "national default" policies that are the inevitable result when interest owed exceeds income available.

But the heck with all this annoying realism. Who wants to suffer through the obvious, but painful, solutions to the serious problems currently confronting our great social experiment of "government of the people, by the people, and for the people". The success of this experiment is what's at stake, but few recognize it and fewer are ready to make the needed sacrifices. So, let's party with Barack and spend, spend, spend, borrow, borrow, borrow. Maybe we can continue to charge the party to the national credit card long enough so we won't have to worry about it. There is always another generation coming along.

Jim Cook Delphi