Parsing words on government waste

Letter writer Chris Lauzen claims that politicians are trotting out “affordability” when they don’t really care about working folk’s hardships. His solution is — oh wait he doesn’t have one. Instead, he blames taxes, inflation and the “few who spend other people’s monies.”

No one likes inflation, and at 2.5% a year, the current rate, your costs increase nearly 60% after 20 years. There are many reasons for inflation, and “printing money” is surely one of them. But there are many other reasons as well, among them constraints on supply, “acts of “god,” monopolies and the latest new federal tax commonly known as tariffs. Government policy, at all levels, of course plays a role.

I doubt Mr. Lauzen’s clients worry about affordability. After all, they can afford him. But they don’t live like most people who worry about paying for housing, transportation, utilities, food, insurance of all kinds, including health insurance, and clothes for their children. The simple fact of the matter is that the current structure of the economy ensures that most people must worry about these things all the time. And the current administration in Washington is making it much worse.

Mr. Lauzen likes to throw around the word “waste,” but he, like the present Washington administration, is never specific about what exactly is wasteful. Every organization, be it government or business, has waste. I think when Mr. Lauzen throws the term around, it is because he disagrees with specific government policies. I think spending billions on ICE to build concentration camps is wasteful, does he?

And lastly, Mr. Lauzen, who pays your State Senate pension, your current salary, including Social Security contributions? State and county taxpayers. What a waste of money. And what about the $300,000 budget increase you wanted as Treasurer? More waste?

Paul Setze

Sleepy Hollow