For Gwen Ifill

October 24, 2010 Dear Ms. Ifill,

Enjoyed Washington Week Friday night. It appears that few of the debates or presentations this season deal seriously with the issues we face as a nation. In many cases, as you noted in Nevada, or in the Delaware debate, the most informative part demonstrated that the candidates are laughable and, under less stressful times, would be disregarded by the electorate.

No one seems to want to ask questions like: What led to the demise of our financial systems and what can be done to repair it? The reasons are many but at the core of it is the decimation of the very laws that defined our institutions’ roles, responsibilities and limitations, which began under Reagan and continued through the first Bush administration, Bill Clinton’s eight years and George W’s two terms and had the active participation of both houses of Congress.

The Obama administration and congressional Dems started repairing the damage and met resistance from the very power structures that taxpayer money helped save and their Republican cronies. The congress should be credited with taking action, not derided as many have been. It is folly to think that we could reinstate the rules and regulations begun under FDR. In fact, we should not. Instead, new rules and regulations that reflect today’s global realities must be instituted bearing in mind the threats to an economy by unrestricted ‘market forces’.

We should ask why our military is spending over $700B annually, 46.5% of global expenditures when the second biggest spender, China, only spends 100 billion, and fifth place Russia spends only $53 billion. (See www.globalissues.org )It should be noted that the defense department themselves admit they have no idea of what they’re buying or what they’re spending.

Defense spending beyond a reasonable point is a non productive expense. That money, used on infrastructure, would be productive and result in returns on investment.

While we’re at it, we should ask why we’re spending monies on armament that does not match up with world realities.

No one asks why we are the world leader in prisons or how those costs are impacting state budgets across the nation. Everyone wants to talk about the state of the nation’s education infrastructure and calls abound for college education for all. But no one points out that the fastest growing jobs and those with the greatest numbers don’t all require college. Further, no one is willing to state that our colleges are failing because they are enrolling students who were not prepared during their first twelve years of education, and to keep those students from dropping out, they are inflating grades. The result is a workforce lacking the very critical skills their degrees imply.

No one is pointing out that IQ measurements have trended upward for decades while measurements of creativity have fallen for over ten years while leading countries are increasing in those very measurements.

No one I know has suggested that not all the lost jobs will return because they have been replaced by technology over the last two years. Jack Welch talked about this very problem in an interview with a business reporter I saw recently on the internet. I leave it to you to find it. I recall, though that he was talking about a multibillion dollar financial services company that had seen sales drop dramatically, forcing the layoff of some 13,000 of the 27,000 person workforce. When business returns, however, he anticipates only a few thousand will be called back due to improvements in process. GE is not alone. Look at the collapse of the job market in Silicon Valley and you’ll find a similar outlook.

No one is looking ahead ten years, when globally there will be another one billion mouths to feed and a huge number of additional workers, with only tens of millions of jobs for them,

No one is talking about the need for the world’s leaders to look at a new paradigm -- for what people will be doing with their time -- productively – to avoid conflicts across the globe when technology usurps their current roles.

None of the candidates has challenged us to answer such questions as what kind of country we want to be, or if our actions both domestically and throughout the world accurately reflect our espoused values.

Lastly, no one has asked the congress why they cannot gather in a semicircle, place before them one problem at a time and tackle it intelligently in a Socratic method instead of taking sides for one-upmanship while their constituents suffer.

Congress has done more positive things in these two years than in the previous eight, in spite of the economic conditions and in the face of serious, mean-spirited resistance, influenced and supported by outside corporate influences. They approved the bailout and, over the ensuing year have been paid back, with interest, by many of the companies that were saved, such as General Motors and financial companies. They extended unemployment benefits for millions of out-of-work Americans in the face of stiff opposition. Left to do their work, the monies that could be generated by repealing the tax breaks for the top two percent of income earners could extend those payments for a while longer, hopefully until some of the jobs return and people realize that they are going to have to lower their standards of living, more than likely permanently. They passed laws to rein in the greed and avarice of financial giants and they passed what is hoped to be a health care plan that, with adjustments over time will benefit all our citizens. Congress have much more to do and not so much time to do it. It is time for all hands on deck. We elected people to tackle unanticipated problems that took years to manifest and then we attack them for not resolving them in an instant. We, as citizens, need to do our part by giving the effective congressmen and women the time to do their tasks.

Joe Malgeri .

These People Are Not Your Friends

In the last two weeks leading up to the mid-term elections, over $250 million will be spent on attack ads to influence a handful of critical house and senate races. The monies are coming from corporate accounts that have no reporting requirements due to the Supreme Court's decision earlier this year.

These people are not your friends. They want to tap your anger and frustration for their own gain. Do NOT let this happen.

Certainly you're mad. So am I. But look at the things this congress did in less than two years:

They passed health care bill that will give insurance to millions of individuals and families who could not get it. Even Bill Clinton could not get that done.

They passed legislation to try to fix the collapsing financial system.

I agree the health care bill is not perfect but most provisions take years to go into effect, so there is time to amend it, not toss it. It is a baseline from which we can build.

The financial system collapsed because the legislation that kept the system whole was dismantled by a number of administrations, from Reagan to the first Bus, to Clinton and the second Bush. This congress took steps under President Obama to correct the sins of the past. Their work was, again, not perfect, but it's a step in the right direction, and they need time to make it better.

Your frustrated -- so am I. You want jobs to come back -- so do I. But Obama did not make this mess and we need to give him time to fix things. The people who are backing Christine O'Donnell in Delaware, Sharon Angle in Nevada, Rand Paul in Kentucky and Carl Palladino in New York are after more than those seats. The want to disrupt government so they can control the issues that most affect their interests. They are not concerned with your rights, or mine.

Be careful who you vote for. This time it's really dangerous. The people spending this $250 million are not your friends and they certainly don't have your best interests at heart. This is not the time to undermine the progress of the last 18 months.