We're better off than grim EU
Those who still think that the job-killing, slash and burn economics of the Republican Party are the way to fix what ails America, better keep an eye on Europe, where "austerity" has gone much further than in America.
The unemployment rate in the EU is more than 10 percent compared to 8.1 percent in the U.S. In Spain, the rate is 25 percent; 50 percent for young people. Many European states are experiencing negative GDP growth. And where are the signs that all this austerity medicine is working?
These economic policies have a lot in common with the medical practice of draining blood from those suffering from illness. They both increase the odds the patient will die.
-- Geron Bruce
Juneau
Romney still a bully to this day
A dangerous bully in high school, Romney still believes there are those who deserve a break and those who should suffer. He favors cutting taxes on the rich, like himself, and raising taxes on the bottom 20 percent of taxpayers. He supported the bailout of his Wall Street friends but wanted to "let Detroit go bankrupt" with the loss of one million jobs.
Romney's big-money supporters are getting ready to try to slam our president. They're wasting their time on people smart enough to know when the gap between the rich and poor is being pushed to widen and on those of us who cannot be bought.
-- Cheryl Silcox
Anchorage
Halibut stock must be saved
Alaska is a state which relies heavily on its commercial and sport fishing industries. Sadly, without proper reductions in groundfish bycatch limits, halibut populations continue to drastically diminish.
Next month, the North Pacific Fishery Management Council will meet in Kodiak to vote on a 15 percent reduction in halibut bycatch in the Gulf. For coastal communities in Southeast and Southcentral Alaska, this is an important issue as halibut fishing plays a major role in local economies. In the past 25 years, commercial fishing limits on halibut have dropped by 63 percent while bycatch limits have barely changed. These cuts in harvest limits are hurting the businesses, economies, and communities who rely on halibut as a resource to survive
Send an email to npfmc.comments@noaa.gov and tell the Council to reduce halibut bycatch in the Gulf of Alaska by 15 percent. Because all sectors must do their part to conserve and rebuild our halibut stock.
-- Julie Miller
Kodiak
Voters need only look in mirror
If the citizens of Alaska and the entire United States don't have any more sense than to vote for either Barack Obama or Lisa Murkowski, they've nobody to blame but themselves. For after watching the stock-market losses during the past few weeks, it's readily apparent that the present administration has absolutely no concept of what they're doing to the overall economy of this nation, as well as that of Europe and the Orient.
It seems totally ridiculous to grant amnesty to illegal aliens and allow them to draw Social Security, when it's supposedly going to run out of funds by 2030. Particularly when Congress and the Senate both seem to think it's alright to give themselves another raise in pay, when so many of their constituents are either out of work or in danger of losing their homes.
At least that's the way most of my friends and neighbors here in Homer all feel.
-- Sydney A. Huffnagle
Homer