Lowery, Checks

In reviewing the latest revelations of the House of Representatives banking scandal, I have come to the conclusion that neither the district nor the country would be well served by returning Bill Lowery to Congress, whatever his asserted seniority. Three hundred checks totaling almost $104,000; an account that was (in my vocabulary) “overdrawn” for almost 25% of the time under review, with most of the “overdrawn” checks written for amounts in excess of $1,000 and one for almost $10,000.

This is neither an honest mistake nor defensible money management. This is arrogance, pure and simple. Here we have a man who neither knows nor cares about the problems of those of us who live from paycheck to paycheck; who each time we borrow, accept the fact that the interest we must pay on either our overdraft protection or our credit card will keep us from buying some other needed item.

This is a man, who, while he was “borrowing,” interest and constraint free , the tax laws were being changed so that the rest of us lost even the tax shelter of our interest payments.

BARRY I. NEWMAN

Escondido