Letter to the Editor,

With 15 million Americans out of work, record home-foreclosures, the largest number on food stamps and 25 percent of our school children living below poverty level, one might think it’s a good time to end foreign aid and instead concern ourselves with our own country.

But no, foreign aid has become such an ingrained part of our federal policy that ending it is not even being considered.

Who are these people who are supposed to be representing our interests? The entire establishment of government in our capital is so out of touch with the people it causes me to wonder who they are and where they come from.

They must not read the newspaper or watch the news on TV, because they don’t seem to realize that our country is going down the drain.

With compensation and benefits for government employees now exceeding those in the private sector, one might think it’s logical to bring these into balance, but no, government employee compensation and benefits keep on rising relative to the private sector.

Similarly, rational judgment might suggest that the high cost of energy in our country that is killing business might be brought down by our government relaxing their onerous over-regulation of the energy sector and the development of our own energy resources instead of being held hostage to foreign energy supplies. But no, our government instead pursues ill advised military adventures in the Middle East supposedly to insure our access to oil on foreign lands.

It seems to me everything our government does nowadays is detrimental to our country. Are these people representing us patriots or are they foreign agents?

—Bill Payne

Libby