Presidency came with debt, joblessness

In response to Vicky Johnson's Sept. 27 letter, “Fiscal responsibility is what we need”: President Barack Obama did not accomplish “gigantic debt,” it was there when he took office, courtesy of, among other things, two wars and a drug benefit, all unfunded. It left him in an all-but-intractable situation.

The magnitude of the debt itself was not a factor in the credit-rating downgrade, as Standard & Poor's hastened to explain. It was that anybody was nutty enough to hold the debt ceiling hostage, thereby flirting with default. Meanwhile, investors continue to seek financial refuge in U.S. Treasury bonds.

Joblessness. Same deal as the debt (and the stimulus arguably kept things from worsening further, but you can't prove a negative). And corporations are not “afraid” to invest. They have simply found more remunerative ways to deploy their cash.

Now, on to the free-trade agreements beatified in a Sept. 30 guest column. Here's what you get:

Colombia is notorious for anti-union violence that goes unpunished. South Korea lowers costs by exploiting “slave labor” from the North. And Panama's economy may be minuscule, but its banking laws allow money to be hidden so that it will never be found.

Sound good?

Cindy Adhikari

Cedar Rapids