I quit reading Mr. Setty's letter the moment that he started hysterically attacking President Obama as a "Marxist Socialist." No actually, the government does not now and certainly never has owned major assets outside of public land. Nor is it likely to.

But I think the dude totally misread the intent of Rowe's letter. Debt to assets has nothing at all with whether government "owns" assets compared to the ratio of debt, but rather overall debt and our ability to successfully reduce it by what we have in available capital (revenue through tax increases), reduction in spending (how about first starting with non-essentials), and balancing the budget = spending no more than we take in.

If this was what Mr. Rowe intended to say then Mr. Setty's rabid hysteria about our president also created a lack of credibility for any otherwise legitimate statements he might have made. Attacking people because they represent "the wrong party" or isn't "1,000 percent in tune with my way of thinking" is far more "Marxist Socialist" than anything Obama has done so far or is ever likely to do.

JOAN E. HARMAN

Dalton Gardens