Issue link: https://www.epageflip.net/i/29257
6A – Daily News – Thursday, April 14, 2011 Opinion D NEWSAILY RED BLUFF TEHAMACOUNTY T H E V O I C E O F T E H A M A C O U N T Y S I N C E 1 8 8 5 Corning roads a safety risk Editor: Just barely on the outskirt of Greg Stevens, Publisher gstevens@redbluffdailynews.com Chip Thompson, Editor editor@redbluffdailynews.com Editorial policy The Daily News opinion is expressed in the editorial. The opinions expressed in columns, letters and cartoons are those of the authors and artists. Letter policy The Daily News welcomes let- ters from its readers on timely topics of public interest. All let- ters must be signed and pro- vide the writer’s home street address and home phone num- ber. Anonymous letters, open letters to others, pen names and petition-style letters will not be allowed. Letters should be typed and cannot exceed two double-spaced pages or 500 words. When several letters address the same issue, a cross section of those submit- ted will be considered for publi- cation. 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How to reach us Main office: 527-2151 Classified: 527-2151 Circulation: 527-2151 News tips: 527-2153 Sports: 527-2153 Obituaries: 527-2151 Photo: 527-2153 On the Web www.redbluffdailynews.com Fax Newsroom: 527-9251 Classified: 527-5774 Retail Adv.: 527-5774 Legal Adv.: 527-5774 Business Office: 527-3719 Address 545 Diamond Ave. Red Bluff, CA 96080, or P.O. Box 220 Red Bluff, CA 96080 Loud, bold and wrong Commentary We must love boisterous blowhards. As Americans, we are fixated on people who make loud, definitive declarations so we can stand behind them waving our oversized number-one foam-fin- gers chanting: "Go team! Win!" If you take away all the neb- bishy number-crunching and bureaucracy — which is most of government — politics is all pos- turing and platitude landing. There’s an entire industry (cable news) solely devoted to bold asser- tions as entertainment. This means we’re subjected to a colossal amount of failed predictions and prognostications. Yes, if both sides say they’re absolutely correct — at least one has to be wrong. But as Americans we like the courage it takes to stand up and be inaccurate. We hate handwringing and pandering — it’s just not fun to watch. We still like that swagger of a sure-of-himself cowboy. We love to love them, and we love to hate them — which is why Republi- cans tout Congressman Paul Ryan’s budget plan as "brave" despite being unable to bring them- selves to call it "pragmatic." Ryan, a widely admitted Ayn Rand fanboy who seems unaware that she wrote libertarian-fantasy fiction while collecting Social Security and Medicare, is the new GOP "it" guy. After the State of the Union, Ryan gave the rebuttal (dubbed a Debbie Downer), and his name is what the GOP wants you to think of since they’ve been re-branded as the fiscally fretful Tea Party. And, in homage to Republican titles meaning the opposite of what they’ll actually do (e.g., The Clean Skies Act), Ryan’s plan is titled, "The Path to Prosperity." In early April, Ryan wrote in a Wall Street Journal op-ed: "A study just released by the Heritage Center for Data Analysis projects that The Path to Prosperity will help create nearly one million new private-sector jobs next year, bring the unemployment rate down to 4 percent by 2015, and result in 2.5 million additional pri- vate-sector jobs in the last year of the decade. It spurs economic growth, with $1.5 trillion in addi- tional real GDP over the decade. According to Heritage's analysis, it would result in $1.1 trillion in higher wages and an average of $1,000 in additional family income each year." Ooh, a study. How authorita- tive. The Heritage Foundation also loved the Bush Tax Cuts. Loved them. In April 2001, they released a study stating: "The Heritage Foundation Center for Data Analysis (CDA) conducted a dynamic simulation of the pro- posals in the President’s tax relief plan. The final results show that the Bush plan would significantly increase economic growth and family income while substantially reducing federal debt." The federal debt grew nearly $5 trillion under the Bush Administra- tion. And increased eco- nomic growth? New York Times’ economic journalist David Leon- hardt wrote of the Bush Years, "In the four decades that the Census Bureau has been track- ing household income, there has never before been a full decade in which median income failed to rise." In the 14-page 2001 report complete with color graphs and footnotes, Heritage Founda- tion authors D. Wilson and William Beach decided the Bush Tax Cuts would: 1) Effectively pay off the feder- al debt; 2) Reduce the federal surplus by $1.4 trillion; 3) Substantially increase family income; 4) Save the entire Social Securi- ty surplus and increase personal savings; ties. 5) Create more job opportuni- They continued, "As Chart 1 shows, over 1.6 million more Americans would be working at the end of FY 2011..." You don’t need to be an econo- Tina Dupuy mist or have ever uttered the phrase "think tank" to know each point, to put it gen- tly, did not come to fruition. To their credit the Heritage Foundation still has the report on their website, which is what I call actually "brave." Especially since their "analysis" was erroneous — completely and unequivocally wrong. The limp excuse that the Heritage Foundation couldn’t have accounted for 9/11 still doesn’t explain why they contin- ue touting the same failed policies over and over again. This time — Ryan’s. Trickle-down, supply-side, make-the-rich-richer policies have not done what they were supposed to do. In fact and in "reality," they’ve done just the opposite. How will this time be different? It won’t. But being louder and doubling down can effectively obscure the track record. And has. Tina Dupuy is an award- winning writer and fill-in host at The Young Turks. Tina can be reached at tinadupuy@yahoo.com. town, there are several roads that are in such horrible condi- tion, it takes five minutes to drive two blocks. Headed north on Mary Avenue off Salano there are pot holes so big and deep they would hold several hundreds of gallons of water. Several side roads off North Mary Avenue are equally bad. I am sure the property own- ers who pay their taxes are not very happy. It even is hard to keep renters due to what they must go through every time they leave and come home. Holes are never filled in. No grading or graveling. In order to drive around the huge washed out roads, cars have widened the road up into privately owned property lines. If a child got hurt, a home was on fire, or any- one needed an emergency ser- vice, the seriousness of the road conditions might contribute to a loss of life or home. I have driven this road many times and it is impossible to drive over 5 miles an hour with- out taking chances of serious damage to wheels, tires, muf- flers, struts, scraping bottom or putting a fan through a radiator. I feel that before the city thinks about a huge expensive play park, they and Tehama County could fill, gravel and grade a few of those roads to eliminate this safety risk and put health and safety first. You really must see it to believe it. They are really bad roads. Sherri Stubenrauch, Corning Hard to swallow Editor: The truth, like hard cheese, is difficult for liberals to chew and swallow. The union protests started in Wisconsin, and are now going on in neigh- boring states, when Governor Scott Walker (God bless him) told the teachers they are going to have pay more for their benefits to help balance the budget. Wisconsin, like many other states and espe- cially California, are going broke or are already broke because of the cost of wages and benefits paid to their pub- lic employees. These protest- ers, teachers and public employees, are a classic exam- ple of the reason states are and this country is going broke. There is no money to pay them, so they go on strike to get more. An estimated 10,000 pro- testers flooded Madison’s Capital Square and the Capital Building. A question comes to mind, what facilities did they use to relieve themselves? Wisconsin Republican State Senator Glenn Grothman said the “smelly, leftist slobs are turning the state capitol into a pig sty.” Wisconsin State offi- cials estimated it would take at least $7.5 million to clean up after the protesters. A good portion of the protesters are teach- ers. The same teach- ers that are teaching their students how destructive drilling for oil, harvesting timber, and mining for minerals is to the ecology. So, are these teachers there for the kids or for the money? Are they self-sacrific- ing or self-serving? Is this just part of the big picture that SEIU has for what is to come from the unions and the left? The former SEIU official, Stephen Lerner, spoke in a closed session at Pace Univer- sity March 19, 2011 at the Left Forum 2011 "Towards a Poli- tics of Solidarity". Lerner, a former official of one of the country's most-powerful unions SEIU, has a secret plan to "destabilize" the country. The plan is designed to destroy JP Morgan, nuke the stock market, and weaken Wall Street's grip on power, thus creating the conditions necessary for a redistribution of wealth and a change in gov- ernment. A new report from the left- Your Turn leaning Center for Public Integrity (CPI) shows union bosses would stand to lose hundreds of thousands of dol- lars in personal salaries and Democrats would lose mil- lions of dollars in campaign donations if governors in Wis- consin, Ohio, Indiana and other states win their budget battles. The new CPI report calls into question union bosses’ and Democratic lawmak- ers’ true motives in those states, showing that they’re possibly more concerned about losing revenue and per- sonal salary than they are with collective bargaining for pub- lic sector workers. Richard Trumka, President of AFL/CIO, said about the union protests in Wisconsin, “you ain’t seen nothing yet”. What’s next? Louis Farrakhan said about the Muslim protest- ers all over the Middle East “The violence and protests in the Middle East are coming here to the U.S.” Compare these protesters, with their hate and destruction and the mess they leave behind, to the Tea Party gath- erings that pick up after them- selves. There was one report, I saw, that the Tea Party in Madison had volunteered to help clean up after the union protesters. Les Wolfe, Red Bluff Your officials STATE ASSEMBLYMAN — Jim Nielsen (R) State Capitol Bldg., Room 6031 Sacramento, CA 95814 (916) 319-2002; Fax (916) 319-2102 STATE SENATOR — Doug LaMalfa (R) State Capitol Bldg., Room 3070 Sacramento, CA 95814 (916) 651-4004; Fax (916) 445-7750 GOVERNOR — Jerry Brown, State Capitol Bldg., Sacramento, CA 95814; (916) 445-2841; Fax (916) 558-3160; E-mail: gover- nor@governor.ca.gov. U.S. REPRESENTATIVE — Wally Herger (R), 2635 Forest Ave. Ste. 100, Chico, CA 95928; 893-8363. U.S.SENATORS — Dianne Feinstein (D), One Post Street, Suite 2450, San Francisco, CA 94104; (415) 393-0707. Fax (415) 393-0710. Barbara Boxer (D), 1700 Montgomery St., Suite 240, San Francisco, CA 94111; (415) 403-0100. Fax (202) 224- 0454.