Letter to our local newspaper

Letter to the Editor: Edge of the cliff. Larry Vandiver, Tulsa. As a good friend of mine said, "I feel helpless, and I feel hopeless. After watching the deficit/debt debacle in Washington, D.C., I think I feel even more helpless and hopeless than before. Will we as a country ever be able to have a functioning government? Why don't these people who ask us to re-elect them tell us what they want to do to help our country as well as how and why, rather than simply slamming the opposition? Let's not see only evil in the other people, but look for ways to work with them. I am suspicious of the tea party because it seems to be a one-issue party. I think our country and its finances are too complicated to be controlled by one issue. We need to look at all ways in which we can make this a better country, whether it involves spending cuts, tax increases, or changes in our Social Security and Medicare/Medicaid systems. The irony of letting our country get to the edge of the cliff on defaulting is that now that our credit rating has been lowered we could, and very likely will, be paying more in interest payments. If that happens I wonder if those increases in interest payments that will go into financial institution coffers will be more than any recently proposed tax increases that could have helped solve our deficit problems. Letters to the editor are encouraged.