Published: May 03, 2009 01:23 am      

LETTERS: May 3, 2009

We’re getting closer ...



Congress is getting closer to reinstituting statutory pay-as-you-go, or PAYGO, budgeting rules. Recent events saw some major advancements on that front.

First, there was President Barack Obama’s weekly radio address. He asked Congress to enact statutory PAYGO legislation.

Second, on Monday evening, I introduced that piece of legislation, HR 2116, The Fiscal Honesty and Accountability Act. I’m pleased to report it has already garnered more than 50 co-sponsors.

HR 2116 would reinstate statutory PAYGO rules and implement multiyear discretionary spending caps. Unlike the current rules, statutory PAYGO would have the force of law behind it. Thus, any new or increased federal spending would have to be offset. Taken together, PAYGO and spending caps were instrumental in producing the budget surpluses we enjoyed in the late 1990s and early 2000s. And, as I often remark, this bill would finally force Congress to live within a real budget.

Third, the recently-passed budget conference report contains strong PAYGO language. Action on tax-related measures such as the Alternative Minimum Tax, Medicare Physician Fix, extension of the Bush tax cuts and the Estate Tax are contingent upon passage of statutory PAYGO. Therefore, these bills, which are congressional priorities, can only receive attention if we first enact statutory PAYGO.

I know PAYGO is not the most exciting of issues, but the successes we have achieved regarding PAYGO this week are exciting and promising to me.

— U.S. Rep. Baron P. Hill, D-Ind.



Reader counters Harbeson’s ROCK column



Debbie Harbeson appears to be searching for some answers. At least that’s what her April 22, 2009, column in The Evening News concerning Reclaim Our Culture Kentuckiana, or ROCK, indicates.

Ms. Harbeson, it seems that you have difficulty understanding why any citizen in this community would dare be offended by people who wish to engage in any kind of sex act wherever they want, whenever they want. While Theatair X may be a private business, it is open to anyone older than 18 in the general public. Being a private business does not make anyone exempt from following public decency and obscenity laws. Arrests are made all the time for acts such as public indecency and prostitution inside of private businesses, like malls and hotels. Theatair X apparently welcoming this kind of behavior during business hours is irrelevant; laws are laws!

You said yourself, “Remember, sex shops don’t have sex; people have sex.” Maybe it would help you to understand that “people having sex inside sex shops” is what quite a few of us in our community have a problem with.

Thank you so much, Ms. Harbeson, for the wonderful suggestion that my wife and I calmly and honestly discuss sexual matters with our children. Amazing thing, the discussions we have with our children about sex always seem to involve the words “love,” “respect” and “marriage.” So how does this protect my family, my daughter, in particular, from sex offenders and predators in our community who learned about sex from watching hours of pornography? Has anyone done a study on the number of registered sex offenders who live within a five-minute radius of Theatair X?

I would be curious to know.

Finally, Ms. Harbeson, I am sorry if the amount of information that has crossed your path concerning ROCK has inconvenienced you. Let me offer you a wonderful suggestion in exchange for yours: If it offends you, just don’t look at it. That’s the same advice that people who don’t seem to have a problem with pornography want to offer those of us who do.

— Vince Garmon, New Albany



Don’t stress out pigs



According to the Merck Veterinary Manual, swine flu is one of the many diseases that are precipitated by stress.

We know that stress in humans can cause a person to become sick. The same thing is true for animals.

Stress in pigs is caused by the way they are raised. Thousands are raised in large buildings on metal grates over pits of their own manure. Pork producers know this is stressful for them, so they pull their teeth and cut off their tails in order to prevent the pigs from harming one another because of the overcrowding.

They are raised this way for economical reasons — the maximum number of animals in the least amount of space. They copied this method from the poultry industry.

Once one pig develops this disease, it rapidly spreads through the entire herd by airborne infection. This means that when a worker enters the building and breathes the air, he or she can become infected.

Then that person may infect people they come in contact with simply by exhaling, then that person infects another, etc., etc.

Another way of spreading the disease is by transportation. Pigs bred in one state can be transported to another for fattening, then transported to another for slaughter, infecting the workers along the way.

The manual says the best way to prevent this disease is to eliminate the stress of confinement, but this won't happen unless the pork producers are forced to change the way they operate.

This outbreak was not a matter of “if,” but “when.” As long as we allow these conditions to exist, we are playing Russian roulette with our health.

— Ray Wilson, New Middletown