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Partisan politicians acting like children
Have you ever watched a group of 3-year-old children play? When they are not given something they want or they do not get their way, they stomp their feet and pout.
Partisan politics appears to be essentially on the same level. Politicians pout and say, "If it's not our way, then we won't let you have your way," as opposed to doing what is best for our country, our economy and the people of the United States.
People voted for President Obama in 2008 because they saw in him a positive change, a positive new direction for our country. Then, in 2010, elections went the other direction. Conservatives voted tea party candidates and other conservatives into office en masse.
Now our president is having difficulty presiding over our country, as we elected him to do. Partisan politics seems to have become the law of the land.
Please contact our members of Congress and advise them that if they want to be re-elected, they must learn to work together constructively as adults. If they cannot do that, then we will elect others who will make decisions based on logic and sound reasoning, rather than on party politics and making sure that Obama fails.
RAY HULL
Wichita
Let pickers pick
The problem with the immigration laws is that people who will work are not allowed to come in and do it. Farmers can't get their fields picked because U.S. citizens won't get their hands dirty and work hard ("Few take jobs immigrants left," Oct. 21 Eagle).
I'm not suggesting we should let people walk in and out of the United States. But surely there is a way to let those who pick our fields come in and do it. Not only does it keep the fields from rotting, it brings down the prices.
The immigrants are not taking jobs. They are doing a job U.S. citizens are too lazy to do.
T.E. HAGERMAN
Augusta
Follow the money
The Occupy Wall Street movement is said to not have any stated goals or demands. It is interesting to note this just might be a true grassroots movement. Comparing it to the tea party, which the Koch-backed Americans for Prosperity helped organize, is like comparing apples to caviar.
Whenever there is too much disparity between the classes, revolts and uprisings occur. The real question is why the wealthy don't see that it is to their own detriment to perpetuate an argument that these protesters are just a bunch of lazy hippies without jobs. The reality is that much of America understands the wealthy control government, and the smoke screen that has been fabricated by the elite to confuse the masses is starting to disappear.
Folks are realizing that to know the truth, one must only follow the money. This is what could be called the core reason that Occupy Wall Street has struck a nerve with America. Money should not control government. Our common interests rest in the pursuit of happiness for all, not the privileged few.
KIRT REEVES
Wichita
Wrong cause
The nationwide Occupy Wall Street protests seem to want to pay back Wall Street for the evils it has done to Main Street, which the protesters feel represents them. In their view, Wall Street manipulators have made millions by devious actions that extracted those millions from ordinary folks.
But most of those exotic Wall Street financial instruments were simply bets on the direction of change in price or value of things. And those Wall Street institutions wagered with other Wall Street institutions. The Wall Street winners extracted those millions from Wall Street losers.
But because ordinary folks have life savings in things such as pension funds, and those pension funds often invest in Wall Street institutions, the Main Streeters may have shared in the losses of those who made a horrible bet. And when government thinks it necessary to bail out losing Wall Street institutions in order to protect the economy, it does the bailout with Main Streeters' tax dollars. And if the bailout doesn't work, Main Streeters suffer in the ensuing downturn, which can take on crisis proportions — and has.
So the protesters have a legitimate complaint. It's just directed at the wrong cause.
HARRY R. CLEMENTS
Wichita
Pipeline costs jobs
Keystone XL, a proposed Canadian tar-sands oil pipeline, would connect an existing Keystone pipeline to Texas refineries. Here is why every Kansan should reject Keystone XL:
Its consultant testified to Canada's government that the pipeline would raise oil prices on Midwestern refineries by $6 a barrel by diverting oil to Texas, increasing Keystone's profits $2 billion annually. Energy economist Philip Verleger says this increases Midwest fuel costs by $4 billion to $5 billion, adding $2.6 billion to farmers' fuel expenses, partly through manipulation.
Cornell University warns it will destroy Midwestern jobs by raising gas prices up to 20 cents per gallon. IHS Global Insight figures every 24-cent rise in gasoline prices costs 410,000 jobs. Estimates of new permanent jobs from the pipeline only range from 20 to fewer than 100.
The U.S. Energy Information Administration reports we export more than 2 million barrels of oil products per day. Verleger advises that most of the pipeline's oil will go to China.
President Obama has authority over permitting Keystone XL. If you want Obama to deny its permit because we don't want more job losses, contact him at www.whitehouse.gov/contact or at the White House, 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. NW, Washington, DC 20500.
FELIX REVELLO
Larned
