LETTERS: Monday

Fed runs nation’s economy

We have so many folks in this country who continually speak of “Our Great Democracy.” One key area where we so emphatically do not have any democracy, is the money supply. Almost 100 years ago a monopoly on money creation was handed to the Federal Reserve Corporation. The Federal Reserve Bank is neither federal nor is it a reserve. It is a private corporation run under government monopoly charter.

However, the government has no actual control over it. The Federal Reserve can print unlimited amounts of money (called fiat currency) and neither the Congress nor the president can do anything about it. It can and has lent trillions to foreign banks without so much as a peep out of the federal government. Each of those trillions has a call (meaning you pay) on the U.S. taxpayer to back them up. Do you have a vote or say in that? No. The Federal Reserve is the most undemocratic institution and yet controls virtually every aspect of our lives. Isn’t that ironic?

Since there is no free-market money there is no free market, by definition. At the time the proponents of establishing the Federal Reserve said its primary job was to be price stability. Since 1913 the value of a dollar has dropped by 95 percent. For the 114 years preceding the Federal Reserve, the dollar increased in value by almost 50 percent. Catch that? Free-market money increased in value. Isn’t that ironic?

You want to know why the economy is in trouble and government revenue is fading faster every day? The Federal Reserve and its unlimited inflationary policies. You want to know why there ever was a sub-prime bubble? The Federal Reserve’s monetary policy for the past several decades created it. You want to know why you’re unemployed and your job shifted overseas? Ditto the last.

Until Americans know more about the nature of the undemocratic, central-banking system, and its behavior as controlled by a small group of unaccountable men and women, nothing in this economy will be repaired or recovered. The so-called “recovery” so loudly being proclaimed is due to the Fed injecting huge sums of fake money into the banking system and into deficits run by Congress. When our creditors fully understand the devaluation of the dollar (inflation) coming in the next few years all signs and false predictions of recovery will cease.

Call your U.S. senators (Mark Udall and Michael Bennet) today and advise them to learn about and support S.604, the Federal Reserve Sunshine Act of 2009. Also call your U.S. representative and tell him to vote for HR-1207, the Federal Reserve Transparency Act of 2009, when it comes to a floor vote and without amendment. A very bright light needs to be shined on those destroying our money, our economy and our way of life.

Jeff Wright

Calhan

Performance pay not right

Harrison School District’s dictator has done it again. Basing teachers’ livelihood and that of their families on what a bunch of students do on a test is the most asinine thing I’ve ever heard of (“D-2 could become 1st in state to implement pay for performance,” The Gazette, Oct. 23). What other employee in the world has his salary based on what somebody else does? This decision shows a basic misunderstanding of teaching for two reasons.

1) The teacher is not the only influence on how well a student does in school. If a superintendent wants to base the health and welfare of my family and me on a test that somebody else takes, then he better make that test as fair as possible. That means the superintendent better not put a learning disabled child in my room. He better not give me a student who speaks English as a second language. He better not give me students who come from lower socio-economic families. He better not give me students who have parents who don’t care about education or sending their kids to college. He better not give me students who had bad teachers before me. He better not give me a student whose IQ is lower than average. In other words, he better not put in my classroom half the kids who are in our schools. This idea is so un-American.

2) Test scores are the great American lie. Statisticians will say that when one compares statistics, one must make sure the things one is comparing are the same — apples to apples. If Teacher A’s class had poor test scores last year but had really good scores this year, we cannot say that her teaching methods got better. We are not comparing test scores of the same group of students. We are comparing apples to oranges.

Maybe what the voters of Harrison School District 2 should do is insist the superintendent’s salary be based on how well the district does compared to other districts. Or better yet, they should replace the school board because neither the school board nor the superintendent has the best interests of the students at heart.

Colleen Ripp Grosner

Colorado Springs

Obama hedging on promises

President Barack Obama has repeatedly promised that Americans wouldn’t see a tax increase if they make less than $250,000, and if they like their health insurance, they can keep it.

It seems now that the president has no intention of keeping those promises. The health care legislation he supports would impose a significant tax hike on individuals making more than $85,000.

Additionally, for senior citizens Medicare will face more than $400 billion in lost benefits.

It seems that taxpayers and seniors now face new promises from Obama: higher taxes on the middle class and increased cost, reduced access, watered-down quality and rationed care for patients.

Finally, more than 182 members of Congress support a three-day waiting period on health care legislation so that the Congressional Budget Office can estimate its cost and so that Congress and the American public can read the final legislation. With health care legislation frequently longer than Tolstoy’s “War and Peace,” a three-day waiting period so that legislators can read it seems like a good idea — particularly so when taxpayers will be asked to pay $800 billion or more.

Amazingly, several congressional leaders think otherwise.

This is irresponsible governing, and it certainly fails Obama’s campaign promise of legislative transparency. Government-run health care isn’t right and it isn’t fair. As taxpayers and patients, we simply can’t afford government-run health care.

Roger L. McFillen

Black Forest

Senators don’t walk the walk

I wonder if anyone else is watching Colorado Sen. Mark Udall. In his October 2009 “Mark’s Update,” Udall stated that the proposed Baucus health care legislation would not “add one dime to our debt.”

Among the legislation provisions was a $245 billion reduction of Medicare reimbursements beginning in 2011.

1 note that Udall voted for S. 1776 recently, a bill that would eliminate this provision, thereby adding the very $245 billion to our debt. What gives, senator?

Colorado Sen. Michael Bennet also voted for S. 1776.

James J. Komadina

Colorado Springs