The People News, a free newspaper serving Cleveland Tennessee (TN) and Bradley County Tennessee (Tn).





Of Bradley County Tn.


MARCH  2008

                            The People News, a free newspaper serving Cleveland and Bradley County Tn.

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It's a Personal View

"All the presidential candidates promise that if we will only elect them, they will change things."

by Mel Griffith

It appears that the federal government has gotten so big, so complicated, so removed from ordinary life that nothing actually works up there. What was the most important, urgent issue that congress has recently been focused on? Whether a particular baseball player or his past associates are lying about steroid use. Never mind trivia like the Iraq war, the energy crisis or the national budget. Talk about total lack of priorities and common sense. Remember that this was the congress that was elected in 2006 to solve the important problems facing the nation. Somebody needs to remind congress what the big problems are. Bickering among baseball folk is not among them. Regardless of which party controls congress, not much seems to get done. The Republicans took over in 1994 promising to change things. Unfortunately, as has often been said Washington changed them more than they changed Washington. Soon they were as busy as the Democrats had been paying off supporters with earmarks and taking care of favorite lobbyists. In the meantime, reckless spending ran out of control, the national debt skyrocketed, meddlesome regulations continued to pour out of Washington, education was hampered by federal interference and the Iraq war was ineptly managed. After twelve years of Republican stumbling, the voters turned congress back over to the Democrats, who promised that this time they would really get the important things done. After a year and half of grandstanding, no budgets have gotten passed on time, our only energy policy is to borrow money from the Chinese to give to the Arabs for oil. The Arabs then use part of it to fund terrorists. The proposed solution to every problem is to raise taxes thus undoing one of the few positive accomplishments of the past few years.

All the presidential candidates promise that if we will only elect them, they will change things. It's not at all clear whether they would change them for the better or worse. Some of the changes being promised are surrender in Iraq, more regulations and higher taxes. Those are changes we can do without. As the campaign wears on we should listen carefully to see just what each candidate wants to change and also try to determine if the candidate has the experience and ability to actually make good things happen. Good ideas have a way of sinking out of sight in Washington, never to reappear again.

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Mel Griffith

- Mel Griffith raises cattle on his farm in the southern part of the county, is the 6th District member of the Bradley County Commission. He also serves on the Bradley County Planning Commission and is a Valley View volunteer fire fighter.

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