‘Stop the madness’

Let me get this straight: McLennan County spends $30,000 on a program to recoup overdue traffic fines that is an absolute failure and doesn’t collect a dime from delinquent fines?

According to the Aug. 10 Tribune-Herald story, “Scofflaw program fails to reel in money,” the program was to force drivers to pay delinquent tickets by placing a hold on their annual vehicle registrations. Drivers were to pay the ticket plus a 10 percent fee to remove the registration hold.

But no money was collected. Now the county’s answer is to expand it?

Only in government do you have a mind-set that, if a pilot program fails, it must be because it needs to have more money, more staff and more cities.

Stop this madness!

Cancel this program immediately. Fire anyone who was hired to run it and start running McLennan County the way the rest of us run our businesses and households: with common sense and fiscal restraint.

Andy Sheehy

Woodway

Tax-cut truths

Some letters have expressed opinions on the politics of tax cuts and tax increases but are short on facts.

Under the Bush tax cuts, everyone got a cut. Even those who received credits only and paid no tax got an increase. As it stands right now, in January everyone will have a tax increase or decrease in their refundable credits.

President Barack Obama has not cut taxes on those for 95 percent of working households, as has been stated. Revenues to the government are down because of continued job losses, and those who can afford to save are saving more and cutting their spending, not because of tax cuts.

Raising taxes will mean less spending by consumers and less investment in the economy. How will that help the economy to recover?

The economy started to tank when Democrats took control of Congress in 2007, not when Obama took over as president. They were overspending then like now.

Are we better off in 2010 with this Democratic administration? The government’s role in this economy isn’t working. It’s time for a change. It’s time for the government to stop printing money and strapping future generations with debt.

Stephen Williams

Waco

Muslim mosque

Let them go ahead and build their mosque near the fallen World Trade Center in New York City. And let Christians build a cathedral right in the middle of Mecca. This would be fair and would show that the Muslims really are the peaceful and loving religion they claim to be.

Jerry Willett

Lorena

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I hope those opposed to building a mosque near ground zero are also opposed to any Christian churches built within seven blocks of the federal building bombed by Timothy McVeigh in Oklahoma City.

Elli Harris

Waco

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We must keep our logic as we view Muslim Americans. We must be careful not to condemn a group based on its religion.

Kirby Pope

Waco