A Few Worries for Christopher Cox

I must agree when Rep. Christopher Cox (R-Newport Beach) stated in your column (“Bulletin: The Sky Isn’t Falling,” Dec. 26) that, “We must keep our heads . . .” in reference to the financial debacle in Orange County.

However, I must ask the representative to kindly take a long, hard look into the mirror.

(Cox) is a member of the House Budget Committee and chairs the Task Force on Budget Process Reform. Surely he must understand that the county will ultimately file a lawsuit against Merrill Lynch for creating this financial disaster and pocketing tens of millions in profits. Merrill Lynch not only served as the county’s financial adviser, it collected fees for underwriting the notes that were used as down payments for reckless investments, and as a primary seller of the speculative investments.

However, the county’s ability to recover damages from Merrill Lynch or any other culprits will be blunted or eliminated by a measure which is championed and expected to be introduced by Cox through the “contract with America.”

Surely this crisis dramatically illustrates the need for strengthening securities anti-fraud laws, not weakening them.

ROBERT C. HAHN

Orange

* Christopher Cox’s “Bulletin: The Sky Isn’t Falling,” is a sanguine read on the problems facing Orange County. Not to worry, he says, we’re rich.

How about those workers in Orange County who will lose their jobs? How about the poor whose services will be cut back for several years? How about the students in public school systems who will have fewer resources, and maybe fewer teachers?

We have another example in Cox of a politician whose attitude is: “I’ve got mine; who cares about you? And anyway, it’s your own fault if you’re poor.”

RENEE KOGEL

Laguna Beach