Bush’s Economic Forum Needed FDR, Not Hoover

Re “A Void in Fiscal Leadership,” editorial, Aug. 14: The views expressed at President Bush’s Waco economic summit were similar to those of Herbert Hoover. What we need is leadership like Franklin D. Roosevelt’s. Instead of tax cuts, we need economic stimulus in the form of improvement of infrastructure, which would put people to work and encourage manufacturers to invest. Tax cuts do little to boost the economy when interest rates are below 2%. The fear of deficits has to be addressed; a repeal of the tax cuts and added taxes on the affluent can address that.

B. V. Bhimani

Winnetka

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A bunch of corporate bigwigs fly across the country for a half-day meeting, a fancy lunch and a photo op. They lobby a tax cut for themselves, return home with no action plan but proclaim the economy saved, then expense the trip to the shareholders. This was nothing but a corporate boondoggle. The only thing missing was the golf game.

Jeff Bucher

Arroyo Grande

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Robert Scheer (Commentary, Aug. 13) does a good job of pointing out corporate misdeeds that benefit politicians at the expense of the taxpayers, but he has not done an equally good job of pointing out that all parties participate in this game. Does he conveniently forget former Treasury Secretary Robert Rubin’s actions in protecting his firm from losing money on Latin American loans, which ended up costing the Treasury (you and me) a lot of money? Does he forget all the sleepovers at the White House or the influence-peddling in the Clinton administration, which resulted in bills or legislative action benefiting some of these same companies that we are reading about?

Yes, Bush can be associated with some of the corporate pirates that we are reading about, but so can almost all politicians. While people like Scheer would like to make a big deal out of them, Bush’s previous personal business dealings are truly nonevents when compared with the scandals we are reading about these days.

Robert Bergstrom

Woodland Hills

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Scheer is to be congratulated for continuing to expose the Bush presidency and some of its fellow congressional Republicans for their attempt to cover their tracks and connections to major business fraud and corruption.

After disclosures of losses (disguised as earnings) by Enron and WorldCom, one need only look back at the “fuzzy math” issue raised by then-presidential candidate Bush. One has to wonder and question which side of the fuzzy math issue our appointed chief was on.

Charles R. Newcomb

Carlsbad

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Re “Democrats’ Post-Sept. 11 Gloves Officially Come Off,” Aug. 11: The White House condemns Democratic National Committee Chairman Terry McAuliffe for returning to “negative attacks,” while Bush and company orchestrate withering ads against Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle (D-S.D.).

This is the same gang, including White House political advisor Karl Rove and former senior Bush advisor Karen Hughes, who joined the other political assassins during the 2000 primaries to smear Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.).

Make no mistake, the end justifies the means with this sanctimonious administration. I pray that we come through the next two years without too much damage to the country.

Irving Aptaker

Pasadena