LETTERS

LITTLE ROCK — No profit from investment

According to the Financial Times of London, the federal loan programs for the bailout of banks have earned it about $14 billion in profits. Here's how: The federal government earned about $19 billion from charging the banks interest and fees from the loans for the past two years. Had the government invested it in Treasury bills instead, it would have earned about $5 billion; thus, a $14 billion profit.

Does this news pass the smell test? A profit can only result from real (finished) transactions. The Fed did not invest in Treasury bills. It made no profit. It had no costs to offset the $19 billion in revenues from banks using its lending facilities and, unless government is blowing smoke, it has never been in existence to make profits. Government functions only with taxes-or debt. Since the Fed cannot tax, it obviously either printed the dollars it loaned or borrowed the money.

The Treasury raises money by issuing debt to the taxpayer and foreign governments. Congress approves the transactions. The Fed is not accountable. It operates under rules that call a spade a spade, or it can create profit the same way that it creates dollars: by fiat.

ROY DON MILLER Rogers

Entities want control

The health insurance and drug companies are spending millions to defeat health care reform. The health insurance companies and drug companies do not want health care reform, including a public option, because they do not want to lose control of their excessive profits or what coverage we will have.

Certainly, they can afford to spend millions because they know that they will make back their profits in a short time if we do not have a public option to compete with them. They can raise our premiums as high as they want and more employers will not offer insurance because of the cost. Employers do not have to offer health benefits.

How did the Republican Party and the religious right get mixed up in spreading dishonesty and fear about a public plan creating a death panel or funding abortion? What has happened to civility, honesty and compassion? Is it really true that the Golden Rule in America has become "He who hath the gold rules"?

As people of faith, we must love one another, take care of the sick and feed the hungry. Providing affordable health care to all Americans is a moral issue. Health care without a public option as a choice will not be reform but a mandate for higher premiums, less coverage and higher drug costs. Just like the oil companies, whatever the insurance companies and drug companies charge, we will pay or do without.

We must all pay and we must all be accountable for our own health.

THURMAN METCALF Rogers

Exercise truly works

Recently, an article in a major media outlet raised an important health question: Is exercise really an effective means for weight loss?

As a member of the American College of Sports Medicine and a health professional, I can affirm that the answer is an unequivocal yes. Years of research have definitively proved that exercise, when combined with a healthy diet, results in both weight loss and maintenance of a healthy weight.

In early 2009, the ACSM released an updated, evidence-based, scientific position stand that presents the medical literature supporting these exact points. Real-world examples include Lance Armstrong and Michael Phelps. These athletes consume well over 5,000 calories per day but remain thin as they are exercising several hours per day.

Further, there is little evidence to the claim that exercising produces hunger so uncontrollable that it leads to weight gain. In fact, a recent study from the University of Pittsburgh proved just the opposite: Overweight and obese women didn't eat any more food after 40 minutes of exercise than they normally would when sedentary.

Even for the non-overweight, exercise provides benefits that no pill or prescription ever could. It treats and prevents numerous chronic conditions, such as heart disease, high blood pressure, type II diabetes, and even depression. Exercise is a health tool that we all need.

PATRICK KORTEBEIN Little Rock

Revenge is in the air

As people lie in bed tonight, they should listen to the wind blowing outside their window, smell the air as it penetrates around their window. Will they hear possible revenge and note a whiff of an acrid stench in the wind? Is it possible that some of the politicians who may not get voted back in this coming election may be angry and take revenge on us first-echelon taxpayers, Democrats, independents and Republicans?

It has been clearly shown that they do not like to be questioned about their actions. First-echelon taxpayers don't want higher taxes hidden in utilities and so-called fuel consumption additives. It may be that all governments, city, county, state and federal, may be in this together.

Remember the old tale of how greed killed the goose that laid golden eggs? That could be akin to the firstechelon taxpayers. We are becoming a vanishing breed. Socialism, communism or Hitlerism may be a step away unless we do something now.

CHUCK EMERY Fort Smith

Poor get short shrift

The poor are getting poked again. Reports show that there has been not enough increase in inflation to warrant a cost-of-living adjustment for Social Security recipients next year except for federal workers.

Green beans sold for 25 cents per can a year ago. Now they are 75 cents. No increase? Most food items are the same way. Millions of tax dollars for trolley cars, ball fields, old bridges, but none for the homeless.

A report released by McDonald's on its Web site shows that its revenue increased in August. Look at menu prices. It isn't selling more, but charging more for what it does sell.

I thought I was doing well to be able to live on Social Security and state retirement, but I recently got a letter from a business house that stated, "Since your income is entirely from public assistance. . . ." Say no more. Use your own experiences to finish this tirade. Price increases for required services eat up the COLA anyway.

RAY ROBERTS England

Founders were nervy

I will take a page out of Glenn Beck's play book, grab a number, any number, and present it as factual. Here goes.

Ninety-nine percent of the screamers and schemers who are shouting down any meaningful debate on a health care improvement act have never read the Constitution. The Preamble states, "We the people of the United States, in order to form a more perfect union, establish justice, insure domestic tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general welfare"-my emphasis-"and secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America."

Can you believe those socialist, commie rascals had the audacity to think that the government should look out for the welfare of its citizens? Most of the Framers came from stock that lived in and left countries that had two classes, the haves and the have-nots. Maybe they wanted a better life for all.

RALPH ANDERSON Drasco

Save our tax dollars

Boy, Barack Obama fooled me. I honestly thought he would make a difference.

I do not understand why he can't run the country from the Oval Office and save tax dollars. The other day it was said that the Republicans have not been in the White House since April. Well, guess what; neither has Obama.

I wish I knew how much it costs per day to leave the White House lawn on Marine One, then on Air Force One, plus all the cars and Secret Service. When someone can find out, please let me know. I do know it is our tax dollars. Think of all the money he could save and use somewhere else just by working in his Oval Office via phone calls like everyone else who works in an office (the ones who pay taxes for him to waste).

The only time I have seen him in there was playing hide and go seek with his youngest daughter. Oh, I hate myself for voting for him. By the way, I also think he has gotten a little bit cocky since being elected.

MARSHA GRANT Benton

Another clunker bill

If seniors had a choice to drive a Cadillac or a clunker, which would they choose? Regarding health care, our senators and congressmen have a Cadillac policy. If our government passes a health care policy, we are going to have a clunker policy.

We all know what our government thinks about clunkers. I am 69 and have worked all my life, and I still work 40 hours a week and pay into Social Security. I don't want the government telling me my options.

Regarding cap-and-trade legislation, are people willing to pay an average of $100 more a month for gas and electric bills? But they say the sky is falling and we must do something now to save the planet. I believe God knows more about global warming than Al Gore. After all, some of us believe that God created this planet and knew in his wisdom that we were going to use gas to drive our cars and coal to heat our homes. He even tells us that he is holding this world together. What a relief to know that it's not our government holding this world together.

Our new administration has done one thing for me: It has woken me up. I will work and campaign in 2010 for whoever will stand up for seniors.

DON KING Gurdon

Unions about power

The United Food and Commercial Workers Union, about 1.4 million members, wants to double its size by representing Wal-Mart employees. This is all about dollars and union power.

I estimate that the union could gain about $75 million to $100 million a year in employee dues, which officials don't mention, and have even more influence in Congress.

Unions control the big cities with huge salaries at the expense of the property owners and taxpayers. In Chicago, I was told, public workers are paid $75,000-$100,000 a year with most getting their jobs through aldermen who in turn get nice "donations."

I estimate that living in big cities makes the cost of living 40 to 60 percent higher than here in Arkansas. Ten dollars an hour here probably requires $16 to $20 in larger cities. Yet the highest unemployment percentages are in the so-called blue states, where unions are the strongest. The red states with right to choose have the lowest unemployment, and also are where Wal-Mart has the largest percent of stores.

Wal-Mart, which I think is one of the most successful companies in the world, makes a great target. I'm sure some employees would like to be unionized; everyone wants more. However, I think you will find that most are happy to be employed and getting a paycheck.

FRANK FRANZ Edgemont

Feedback Rebalance views

I subscribe to both the Democrat-Gazette and the Arkansas Times. I recently learned from the Times, and by observation that the Democrat-Gazette has reduced the width of the newspaper by one inch.

This presents a real opportunity for the newspaper to rebalance its editorials and commentaries with some views from people other than Paul Greenberg, Bradley R. Gitz, Charles Krauthammer and Thomas Sowell. These folks are best served up in small doses, much like a skin patch that discourages smoking.

If nothing else, a rebalancing of the [opinion pages] could result in a large dose of credibility to the newspaper. For some contrast, perhaps enough room could be made available to offer an occasional editorial or commentary that is actually supported by science.

PETER H. JACKSON Heber Springs