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In response to Alan Shope's letter Saturday: If someone is causing illegal immigrant children to become "traumatized and destitute," blame their parents for putting them at risk, not the Republican Party.
If a parent leaves his small child for an hour in a locked car in August, would one blame the Republicans? No, one would blame the parent.
You are correct: Allowing corporations (and citizens, too) to spend and invest more of the money they earn instead of giving to the federal government causes businesses to grow and ultimately creates more jobs in the U.S. If people in foreign countries want to compete with us, let them. We were, and can again be, the strongest competitor in the world, left to our own ingenuity.
To your third point: Increasing taxes on the rich, middle class and the poor, as Democrats are allowing to happen, will not hurt the very rich because they pay smart tax accountants who can help them avoid the taxes. But higher taxes will hurt the middle class and poor because the moderately rich will not have as much of their own earned money to invest in their businesses, which will keep unemployment at the current levels that Democrats are telling us to get used to.
Since citizens and corporations are similar in how they are taxed and accountable to the law, they should both be able to lobby government officials legally and voice their free speech rights by making donations to candidates for office.
Unions, on the other hand, are not corporations, and their income is not taxed. They were formed to redress grievances committed by employers, not the government. I believe unions should not be able to represent government workers or make donations to candidates.
To your questions to Jim Taflinger: Democrats would love to have public funded elections because then they could take citizens' earned money (in taxes) and spend it to re-elect themselves in order to take more of their earned money.
You are correct in stating that the Democrats "seem" to care for the children, widows, orphans, illegal immigrants and poor people. Their media voices reinforce this notion relentlessly. Too bad that everything they do takes advantage of these same groups of people, as proven by the current and deteriorating state of these folks' economic lives. Need more proof? Look at the bankrupt and declining economics of poor people in the Democratic-run states of California, Michigan and New York.
I kind of like your idea of a temporary, limited legal status for people who are in this country illegally. As long as they were willing to identify themselves and their families, declare income, pay taxes and move along a steady path to citizenship while not committing any felonies, I'd welcome them as new citizens. The illegal immigrants not willing to do these things should be sent home.
Rick Frommer
Murrayville