Dear Editor,

Recently, I read an article in The Eureka Reporter by Ron Ross. I feel compelled to point out the other side of the equation. In the article, he goes after Obama and the fact that most Democrats lean toward more government. This is a sticking point that, for the most part, the GOP dogma hasn’t figured out.

We do need a strong central government to keep the fox out of the chicken house. Remember the Keating scandal involving savings and loans; and remember the energy deregulation fiasco? Free market, they said, and then in 2000, we received the Enron treatment.

We need a strong SEC; we need strong consumer protection and we need a firewall between the banking and mortgage institutions (the Glass-Stegall Act comes to mind).

The FHA, SEC and FDA were put in place in the late 1930s by President Roosevelt and worked very well until the 1970s when the GOP and, yes, some feckless Democrats started to unravel these agencies. And, yes, I do agree with Prof. Ross that the Farm Bill is an over-bloated sticker that needs reforming; but don’t tear down the house to fix a rotten porch.

Bill Barton
Eureka