Transparency now

Dear Editor:

While we disagree with Ms. Marilee Scaff’s opinion that the time is now to forcibly acquire Golden State (“The Time is Now,” COURIER, January 12), the California Alliance to Protect Private Property Rights strongly believes that the time is now for the city to release its feasibility study to the public so that Claremonters can be aware of the costs associated with such a risky venture.

For far too long, the city of Claremont has been politicking in support of a forcible seizure of Golden State Water’s property and water rights without releasing any facts.

Common sense dictates that you cannot acquire a water system worth millions of dollars without passing on those costs to ratepayers, but the city has been playing off Claremonters’ fears of future water rates and has refused to address the fact that seizing Golden State Water would increase future water rates further.

Claremont residents should remember that, according to a Claremont McKenna economist and water expert, even at the current offer of $54 million the average Claremont resident would see a water bill increase of about $500 per year!

In other words, it’s time for the city of Claremont to stop with the negative rhetoric and, sinstead, respect the intelligence of Claremont residents by releasing actual numbers that support its position.

If the city cannot back up its claims by using legitimate facts and figures, the Alliance believes the city has no option but to back away from such a risk-laden scheme.

Nick Mirman

California Alliance to Protect Private Property Rights

Pixley’s statement

Dear Editor:

I read a recent column by John Pixley in which he talked about various ways to make a statement. An additional way that both John and I make a statement every time we go out in public has to do with our cerebral palsy.

For centuries, people like us were hidden away and not allowed to go in public. Fortunately, the world has changed and we have the ability to lead more mainstream lives. From my perspective, every time we go out in public, we are saying that despite CP we have as much right to participate in all aspects of life as anybody else.

Bob Segalman

(Hon) President

Speech Communications

Assistance By Telephone, Inc. (SCT)

Spending is the problem

Dear Editor:

Bob Gerecke (“A piece of the pie,” COURIER, January 9) correctly notes that our economy is struggling on many fronts. But the economy’s “chronic economic problem” is not “the weakening ability of consumers to spend.”

He, like most politicians these days, is caught up in the Keynesian mindset that is at the root of all our problems: the belief that spending is what drives the economy, and that government can make better decisions about how to spend our money than we can ourselves.

The federal government has been on a spending binge since September 2008, in the belief that this would boost the economy, but it has only made things worse. In the process we have borrowed over $5.7 trillion, doubling our national debt, in what amounts to a painful and very costly lesson in the failings of Keynesian economics.

To make things worse, Washington is on track to borrow almost one trillion more this year, and only a handful of politicians dare speak of the gigantic unfunded liabilities that await us unless we reform entitlement programs and introduce market-based incentives to our healthcare system.

As Mr. Gerecke also notes, “austerity” is now the only answer. He argues that we must take more from the rich so that the great middle class can continue to spend. Not only is that the wrong approach, but the math just doesn’t work; no amount of taxation can fill the hole we’ve dug ourselves into. It’s past time to recognize that we can only spend what we produce, and our economy can produce more only if government spends less. We need less government spending and less redistribution of income if we are to prosper.

Middle class spending is not the backbone of our economy, as he asserts. The strength of our economy can be found in its savers, investors, risk-takers, entrepreneurs and inventors—in those who work hard, not those who spend other people’s money.

Our government needs to abandon the absurd notion that we can spend our way to prosperity. It’s time for government to get out of the way and give the private sector a chance.

Scott Grannis

Claremont

Discrimination against women

Dear Editor:

The League of Women Voters urges all interested citizens to write our US Senators to ask them to make ratification of the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) a priority for the United States Senate in the 113th session of Congress.

The record-breaking number of women who will serve in the 113th Congress lends significant momentum for the United States to increase its global leadership role on women’s rights issues. Twenty female Senators will either return to or take office in the Senate—a truly historic accomplishment.

CEDAW is a landmark international agreement that affirms principles of fundamental human rights and equality for women around the world. It is a practical blueprint for each country to achieve progress for women and girls.

CEDAW is already making a difference for women and girls worldwide, specifically by strengthening civil society’s efforts to persuade governments to respect women’s human rights and adopt policies to reduce sex trafficking and domestic violence, provide access to education and vocational training, ensure the right to vote, end forced and child marriages, secure inheritance rights and ensure the right to work and own a business without discrimination.

Ratification of CEDAW would strengthen the United States’ standing as a global leader in standing up for women and girls.

To date, the United States is one of only 7 countries that have not yet ratified CEDAW. It is essential that the US ratify CEDAW and continue to play a leadership role in advancing women’s and girls’ rights globally.

Call on our US Senators to advance women’s human rights, not just for women in the United States but for all women worldwide, by ratifying this convention now.

Ellen Taylor

VP for Advocacy

LWV of the Claremont Area