System, Not Byrd, Is to Blame
Your story on Sen. Robert Byrd’s pork-barrel politics (“Master of the Game,” Jan. 9) overlooks some crucial political and economic realities.
West Virginia’s moribund economy is partially a result of clean air legislation, which imperiled two of the state’s leading industries, coal mining and steel refining. While this legislation was certainly needed, the fact remains that it was federal legislation that put so many West Virginians (including my father) out of work.
In the last round of Clean Air Act negotiations, Byrd made a valiant effort to include provisions to provide job retraining and benefits for workers who would lose their jobs as a result of the bill. President Bush threatened to veto the act if it included these provisions for suffering workers, and thus Byrd’s efforts failed.
Politicians such as Byrd would not be reduced to underhanded maneuvers to keep their states’ economies afloat if our nation, like most other industrialized countries, provided job retraining and support to compensate workers thrown out of work by federal legislation.
ROBERTA RICHARDS
Los Angeles
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