Current president is mopping up mess left by Republican president

Periodically, we are treated to more of Steven R. Rathje's tortured reasoning (“Lawmakers aren't the root of the problem,” June 26 letter). If only we could rid ourselves of these onerous laws and regulations that keep business from doing whatever it wants and remove hundreds of thousands of federal workers (who are “ … on the government dole”), everything would be just ducky.

No doubt the government workers he would most like to fire would be those pesky regulators who sometimes tell business people that they must pay their taxes, provide a safe working environment for their employees and stop insider trading or other illegal practices.

Rathje seems to consider all public employees as parasites on the economy. Does he think the people at the Centers for Disease Control, who daily labor to protect us from pandemics, are useless? Are all the firefighters, CIA employees, Social Security workers, superfluous? Were the three National Park Service employees (including a murdered ranger) killed just this year suckling at the public teat while dying on duty?

I did, however, like his comparison of the situation today to the lingering effects of an extinguished house fire. However, in this case, the fire was started by the last Republican president and the current president is still dealing with mopping up the mess.

Jerry Chilton

Cedar Rapids