Extending Bargaining Fair
Editor:

It seems reasonable and fair that since the Ocean City police, paramedics and fire personnel have collective bargaining procedures, so should all city employees.

Each department has an equally important responsibility toward the operation of our city.

In short, we think City Council should grant collective bargaining to city employees. However, we are not at all in favor of binding arbitration.

Binding arbitration can put too many financial and managerial restraints on the City Council.
Ann and John McDermott
Ocean City

The Facts, Not Nonsense
Editor:

Please let me answer the Tea Party piece, “Now We Must Speak Up”, which gives an argument without facts, just tired incorrect political nonsense designed to scare people.

First, the mistaken premise that taxing rich people or job creators is not the solution. Why not? The top 1% pays the most taxes because they control 40% of the country’s wealth or GNP and manipulate the other 60% by community speculation. They get people like the writer, who if not rich himself, to vote against their own interests. This is the Fox News effect, which brainwashes the poorly educated into war-mongering and callous disregard for needy families. Now they complain that the very poor pay no income tax, preventing the rich from getting another tax cut they don’t need.

The writer says, “we can’t let government grow or lose our freedom.” Hello, we have lost most our freedoms already and now live in a Plutocracy run by people who started the Tea Party.

The Tea Party was founded by the Koch brothers, some real crooked evil-doers who buy politicians and even sold to Iran. They sponsor the A.L.E.C. legislative agenda that only supports rich folks and denies global warming and other hateful agendas like stopping minorities from voting.

Google conservative think tank that discovered Fox News watchers are less intelligent and more likely to have their facts wrong. Like this one: we can’t raise taxes on the job creators. But the job creators are sitting on trillions of dollars, which they won’t invest because demand is down. The middle class is broke and not spending enough money to stimulate the economy. However, the rich job creators are sending our jobs overseas anyway.

The Tea Party is fond of social Darwinism, or survival of the fittest. They love Ann Rand, that heartless witch who had no love for anyone that wasn’t rich and successful. If grandma gets thrown in the street, too bad, she was weak and that’s your new GOP/Tea Party.

The deficit needs to be cut. The revenue stream is down due to two wars and the foolish tax cuts of the Bush/Obama administrations. You can’t go to war and cut taxes. It’s fiscal suicide. So taxes on those who can afford it must be greatly increased. Don’t you buggers see, the rich are getting richer and the poor poorer. They got rich with our help and now they get the idea that the rest of us can be forgotten.

What happened to being our brothers’ keeper? It doesn’t need to be welfare. Why not a job? But it’s every rich guy for himself now and send our factories to China. These people are traitors to their country. Mark 10:25 says, “It’s easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than a rich man enter the kingdom of God.” Good luck, everybody.

Andy Vanderwerff
Ocean City