Letters to the Editor

Capitol neglect

A recent "CBS Sunday Morning" show did a piece on the deplorable and neglected conditions at our Capitol's grounds. The nearby lakes are polluted, the grass is worn away and the walkways are desperately in need of repair.

Why? Does not our Capitol deserve the very best maintenance? This is another example of Congress' neglect facing it every day, should the members be in town and not out campaigning. Why is the Interior Department allowed to ignore the obvious neglect of a national treasure?

As an American, I am ashamed of the Capitol's condition. I'm sure that our foreign visitors notice the unkempt condition.

Congress should stop spending enormous amounts on an unnecessary war and "earmarks" and give Americans and Washington a break.

PHIL SIEGRIST

Plantation Lane

Mount Pleasant

Abundant source

If McCain wants to solve the energy crisis, he should offer $300 million to anyone who could cheaply convert kudzu into biofuel. Kudzu biofuel. Kudzu is an eternally renewable resource.

JAMES G. FOWDEN

Maybank Highway

Johns Island

Fair solutions

Kudos to Rep. Paul Ryan, R-Wis., for proposing bold solutions to make Social Security and Medicare solvent, put consumers in charge of their medical care and make the American economy more competitive. It puts him light years ahead of the presidential candidates, who offer no solutions.

The centerpieces of Ryan's plan are allowing workers to opt in to Personal Savings Accounts under Social Security, shifting Medicare from a top-down government bureaucracy to a free-market insurance program, empowering workers to choose the insurance policy which meets their individual needs rather than making it an employer responsibility, and allowing people to choose to adopt a two-rate flat income tax.

Anyone who doesn't understand the impending train wreck presented by our entitlement programs is delusional. Medicare will start running shortfalls this year. Under the system, medical providers only receive a fraction of their standard fees and pass the difference on to other customers. Social Security will start running a deficit in 2017. Our 35 percent corporate tax rate and heavy compliance costs increase prices of American goods and drive manufacturing operations overseas. The only fault I find with Rep. Ryan's plan is that it involves tinkering with our horrible tax system.

A better solution would be to completely scrap our tax code and replace it with the FairTax. Along with free-market solutions to treat medical insurance customers as consumers, the FairTax gives us the best means of turning our economy into the envy of the world.

JOHN STEINBERGER

Edinburgh Road

Charleston

Not state's job

Shame on the writer of a July 2 letter who stated, "Without the 'I Believe' license plates, how will anyone know who the Christians are?"

The writer should read the First Amendment. There is no place for government to recognize who the Christians are, and more importantly, who they are not. Have you forgotten the untold millions who have been killed over religious issues?

MALCOLM FAGES

Willington Court

Mount Pleasant

Welcome relief

Thank heavens for Saturday, Sunday and holidays. The stock market can't go down.

WILLIAM D. HILTON

Capri Drive

Charleston

Timely hiring

In response to Gene Sapakoff's July 2 sports column concerning the search for a new College of Charleston baseball coach:

Coach Pawlowski accepted the Auburn job on June 20 — not "six or seven weeks ago," as the columnist asked in jest. Monte Lee was named the new head coach on July 2. In the span of 12 days the athletics department posted a job-opening notice, waited for goodness-knows-how-many resumes to arrive, sorted through them to pick out the top candidates, arranged schedules of a committee of seven to interview four candidates, and made their selection.

Contrary to Mr. Sapakoff's juvenile "light bulb changing" analogy, the process appears fast and professional.

Possibly the columnist was unhappy with the final choice and decided to blame the athletics department. Personally, I liked the fact that they opened the field for competition and there were no "secret negotiations." As in most things, only time will tell if the best choice was made, but fans should certainly support this former Cougar ballplayer as the new head coach.

LYNN WIEDEKE

Seewee Circle

Mount Pleasant

No-show McCain

Regarding: "An improved GI bill," Post and Courier, July 7. The editorial concerning President Bush's signing of the new GI Bill failed to note that, although Sen. John McCain "amplified" the bill to include transferable benefits, he failed to actually vote on the bill when it was presented to the Senate. Sen. Barack Obama joined the majority with a yes vote.

CELESTE PATRICK

Church Street

Charleston

Seven-dollar gas

Get used to it. We complain, but do nothing to fix the problem. Democrats for years have blocked legislation to allow drilling for oil and the building of more refineries.

Obama wants the United States to be oil independent by the year 2022. What a joke. That's when gas is estimated to be $7 per gallon. Obama and the Democrats don't want to drill where there are proven oil reserves. Can this country survive four years of Obama and the Democrats?

Some ways that could offer short and long term relief from high gas and food prices:

1) Do away with ethanol and put corn back on the table instead of in gas tanks. Ethanol has caused a rise in grocery prices.

2) Cut speed limit to 55 mph and enforce it — slow down.

3) Stop putting oil in federal oil reserves for one year.

4) Take oil companies' profits for the last two years above what they made the two previous years and return it to consumers by lowering gas prices.

5) Drill for oil off the coast of California and Florida and in the Alaska National Wildlife Reserve now.

6) Cut federal taxes on gas for one year.

In an interview with Fox News, oil drillers stated that oil could be drilled in less than two years, not 10 or 20 years as the Democrats claim.

A.W. MIZELL

Storen Street

North Charleston