Blame the Republicans 

Regarding Robert McDonald’s article about the demise of California (“The California exodus,” Jan. 7) and really the entire U.S. (and world), let no one forget that this economic meltdown was the Republican’s big plan from start to finish. Who is it who’s railed all these years about their hatred of “big government” (translated: The United States)? Republicans. Remember all those Gingrinch government shutdowns during the Clinton years? Republicans. Which group was rabidly anti-regulation even when all sensible people said you can’t let industry regulate itself? Republicans. Remember Republican Pete Wilson’s crazed drive to deregulate, which led to scandal and escalating energy costs in California? It was Republican Phil Gramm’s 1999 repealing of the 1933 Glass-Steagall Act, which had addressed the abuses that caused the Great Depression, that led to the current crisis. True, Clinton signed it into law, but I suspect he was only doing it to get along, advice given from his Republican-appointed fed chief, Alan Greenspan.

Why have Republicans been soooo anti-government? Why do they hate regulation soooo much? First, they detest the idea of having to pay one red cent to help the poorest Americans—you know, the widows and orphans their Bible tells them they should care for. And they hate the idea of giving one red cent to aid in the protection of the environment. You know, the Earth that God told people to care for way back in Genesis. Certainly their corporate buddies hate the big regulation bugaboo and have used their many think tanks to disparage everything from the clean air and clean water acts to the endangered species acts.

This baby is Republican and neo-con through and through. Bankrupt the country and there won’t be enough money to pay for those hated programs. May they never return to power again.