Intellect, style, grace

Re “Obama calls for patience as stimulus takes hold,” March 25

To speak for a few minutes and then answer questions for many more with intellect, style and grace showed once again that President Obama not only knows what he’s doing, he will challenge anybody to come up with a better solution. He also has his eye on the long-term implications.

The griping we are hearing right now is from the fat cats being pulled away from the cream.

Bob Chavez

Granada Hills

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We must now spend a great deal of money to repair the economic damage done by the Republicans and their Democrat sheep, who went along with the whole deregulation scheme.

At the same time, we must invest a great deal more to restore an activist government that will provide infrastructure, green-technology investment and stimulation, education and healthcare for all Americans.

Where to find these huge sums of money, you ask? Get it from where it all has gone -- tax the rich.

Bob Wetzel

Murphys, Calif.

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Obama has already failed.

Between trying to be nice to the Republicans, appointing all those people to save us who caused the economic meltdown in the first place, and upholding rendition and the war in Afghanistan, Obama missed his window. Too bad.

I had reservations, but I really hoped he’d be different. Unfortunately, I wasn’t wrong. He’s Bush-lite. And we need Roosevelt-heavy.

Joan Meijer

Los Angeles

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Re “A global effort,” Opinion, March 24

Obama’s explication of the global economic crisis sets forth the causes and remedies of our financial morass in a thoughtful, erudite manner.

Yet noticeably -- and disappointingly -- absent from the president’s Op-Ed article is any mention of Americans’ individual roles in creating and recovering from the mess we are in. In our collective narcissism, we have held up a mirror to banks, insurance companies, government and greedy executives, yet seem completely oblivious to our own individual responsibility -- the most important component of this crisis and its recovery.

Robert Ouriel

Brentwood

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Re “Obama defends plan to limit tax deductions,” March 25

The president doesn’t think it’s “fair,” when he describes how a taxpayer in the 39% bracket will get a larger write-off of charitable contributions than one in the 28% bracket.

What is fair about one taxpayer having a tax rate of 28% versus another taxpayer having a 39% tax rate?

Double standards, pure and simple.

Joe Nedza

Newport Beach