keep dams jerry pappe 122110

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Keep the dams; don’t over-regulate food

Herald and News Letter to the Editor by Jerry Pappe, Sprague River December 21, 2010

In a Dec. 10 letter, Brad Kalita spouted off about dam removal, stimulus spending and phony food safety bills.

I agree with him on dam removal.

I have written on this before. I also agree with him on the Food Safety Bill S. 510, placing corporations and their lobbyists in charge of every aspect of food production.

This bill makes the mom and pop gardeners who want to sell their produce at a farmers market subject to fines if they don’t comply with the regulations. (Even a person who plants a little row of radishes in their back yard is subject. This is ridiculous).

Where we disagree is where he says he can’t understand “conservatives are suddenly against stimulus spending, where were they when they re-elected Bush and a Republican Congress to another disastrous term, creating a black hole of debt.”

President Bush was re-elected in 2004 and had a Republican Congress. In 2006, there was a resounding defeat to the Republicans and the Democrats controlled Congress since January 2007.

Furthermore, Democrats controlled the budget process for fiscal year 2008 and fiscal year 2009, as well as fiscal year 2010 and fiscal year 2011. For fiscal year 2009, Nancy Pelosi and Prince Harry Reid bypassed President Bush entirely, passing continuing resolutions to keep government running until Barack Obama could take office. At that time, they passed a massive omnibus spending bill to complete the fiscal year 2009 budgets. And where was Barack Obama during this time? He was a member of that very Congress that passed all of these massive spending bills and he signed the omnibus bill as president to complete fiscal year 2009. For your information, President Bush’s fiscal deficit for 2008 was $459 billion; President Obama’s fiscal deficit in ’09, $1.75 trillion. Enough said about inheriting a deficit.