No wonder we don't trust government

At a time when the country is coming apart at the seams it becomes more and more frustrating to see it all happen.

Let's start with spending. Illinois is $13 billion in the red. Based on promises made to various unions and state employees.

There is no way that Illinois will be able to correct this situation because the legislature is not willing to make the changes that won't get them re-elected. It is more important that they maintain the position of power than doing what is right for the state.

The federal government started the road to destruction when a Democratic President (Kennedy) signed into law that government employees could form unions. Based on that, the rest of the country followed suit. Why not?

After all, what is good for the feds should be good enough for the rest of the country. Along with that change came more and more regulations that enriched the federal employees.

The next thing you see is the laws to do away with the "poverty" of the nation. Introduced by Lyndon Johnson - a Democrat. The second entitlement program, the first being Social Security, passed by another Democratic President - Roosevelt.

The entitlement to end poverty has failed. It has cost the country trillions of dollars. Guess what? It is worse today than it was in 1963. But then again there were more jobs.

Now for taxes. At least the current Democratic president was honest when he said that he was going to raise taxes. That is about all he has been upfront about. At a time when jobs are no longer available, he raises taxes. After a $780 billion bailout there are on average 450,000 people filing for unemployment each week. That means 1.8 million workers are out of work. You will see bailout money become available as we approach election time. However, the people are so fed up with what is going on in Washington that I don't think it will help those elected legislators running for re-election.

No wonder people don't trust any form of government.

William Swearingen

Elgin