Letters to the editor Dec. 19

Reserve Nevada jobs for legal Nevadans

If Nevada were to crack down on its illegal alien problem, it could free up over 150,000 jobs for unemployed Nevadans in the process - none of which have anything to do with jobs that Americans will not do.

The propaganda that we would lose $30 billion in taxable revenue if illegal aliens were booted out of our state is a lie. For every job vacated by an illegal alien there would be an American citizen ready to fill it. There would be no loss of revenue for our state, just a bunch of very happy Nevadans, happy that they can once again afford to pay their heating bill, their rent or mortgage and to put food on their table.

Bottom line, it's time to take serious measures in combating Nevada's illegal alien problem.

Before condemning this letter, go and take a good hard look at the homeless Americans living on Record Street near downtown Reno. And if you do, please take some hot food and pass it out and be prepared to have your heart broken. Oh, you will not find any illegal aliens, just Americans down on their luck and in desperate need of jobs.

James R. Parker

Carson City

Thanks to city for newly paved roads

I would like to thank Ken Smitson and the folks who repaved Fairview and Butti. There was digging done for the new pathway, and the road was so bumpy for my two special kids in wheelchairs.

I called one month ago, and the road was repaired. If the kids could thank you, they would.

Barbara Smith

Carson City

Teen wonders how shirkers get away with it

Our tax dollars at work - how many city workers does it take to clean a gutter? Apparently it takes five, one man working, the other four standing and watching.

I watched this happen outside my house on several occasions; the whole time, only the one man was working. This is a complete waste of city money to hire five people to do a one-man job.

I'm 15 and work at a restaurant in town. If I sat and watched a coworker while he/she was doing a job, I would either be sent home for the day without pay or fired. Why does the city let their employees get away with this nonsense?

Caleb Keith

Carson City

Put a stop to Congress's runaway spending

Is it insanity or idiocy? The 1,900-page new Omnibus Spending Bill will add more than $300 billion debt due to the inclusion of over 6,000 earmarks no committee has seen or approved.

Those include $4 million to repair a Union Pacific Railroad bridge in Iowa, $80 million for Pacific coastal salmon recovery, $3.2 million for food and agricultural research in Alaska and Hawaii, $1.5 million to animal vaccines in Greenport, N.Y., $3.5 million for termite research in New Orleans, $1.6 million for irrigation research in New Mexico and Texas, and maple research in Vermont.

This will add to the deficit and debt, as will extending the Bush tax cuts for two years, which is not likely to encourage business to expand. Business cannot survive with projected profits for only two years. Most small businesses, which hire the most workers in the U.S., don't even make a profit for the first few years, and certainly won't take a chance for such a short favorable forecast.

Congress is out of control. They will bankrupt the entire country. They must be stopped now. Urge Congress to vote no on this horrible tax bill.

Judy Jacobs

Topaz Lake