Election time is coming. I was so burned out by the federal elections and mud slinging, I almost kept tuned out of the local politics. But the fact is, all politics is local. I haven't really read where anyone is critiquing the current administration, and wonder, why not?

Why isn't there more written on these candidates? I know the League of Woman's Voters run an excellent program, but is run just early enough so that those who only get out and vote, may not remember the discussion, just the name recognition.

I think that is the trouble with politics. Name recognition. If your name is heard before, or is a family political name, or my favorite, your name is on the ballot first, you get the black oval. If your name isn't one heard of before, and you miss the discussions, you can vote with a herd mentality.

This particular county election is very important. And certainly merits the considered opinion and vote of the voting populace. We are entering a time of resource wealth for this county, and not just the inhabitants of Montrose. Judging by the lack of experience and foresight this current administration has shown, and the obvious conflict of interests, which is inherent when you don't know the deal, or maybe because you do, tells me that the interests are just for the few, and not the many.

The kind of money that is being generated by the gas industry has a lot of decimal points, and in this area very few folks even know what those place values really mean. We go through life with a grocery money amount, not millions. And millions is what has already been spent in the county, with a projected 5 year window of opportunity for county growth. I just hope the newly elected will be of the business caliber of fiscal management, and not what currently is in elected positions now.

I know who I am endorsing because of the long range vision this person has. I will be out helping get the vote, and hope that the citizens of this county get out and vote as well, and not just for the name that appears on the ballot first. Please look at the candidates and vote what is best for all of us in the county, and not just the special interests of a few.

There is a quote that says we are governed by what we deserve, and now that Susquehanna County is recognized in the commonwealth, it is our call about who and what we deserve. See you at the polls.

Sincerely,

Cynthia Allen

Summersville, PA

Herman Cain is being pilloried over his comments on abortion. Even our former Senator, Rick Santorum is labeling him as pro-choice. I want to get my two cents worth in on this issue.

In the sound bites which I have seen, Cain is discussing abortion as the decision made by the family or the pregnant woman herself without interference by the government. What the sound bite conveniently left out was that Cain was talking about a pregnancy which resulted from rape or incest or one in which the prospective mother was in eminent danger of death as a result of the pregnancy. I am about as pro-life as one can get but I subscribe to the same position as Herman Cain.

In the first two cases, the pregnant women are most likely young girls or girls like Jaycee Dugard who was kidnapped and held for eighteen years. Rape and incest victims have already been seriously violated and emotionally damaged to the extreme and forcing them to carry the baby to term under these conditions is tantamount to raping them again and again.

What about the baby you say? Well, I contend that the baby conceived by forcible rape is less a gift of God than a curse of Satan. I admire and support any such victim who voluntarily and without coercion carries the baby to term but I would like Senator Santorum to answer what he would do if it were one of his daughters in that situation.

With respect to the third case, the choice is between mother and child where only one can reasonably be expected to survive. I choose the mother because, not only does she have just as great a right to survive as the child but there may be other already existing children who are dependent on her survival or, if not, at least a husband who deserves his wife.

Herman Cain, sadly, was forced for political reasons to pull back from the rape and incest exception. I am saddened that if you, as a politician, profess any common sense, you will be torn asunder by those professing the purity of rigid orthodoxy.

Sincerely,

Joe McCann

Elk Lake, PA

One of the ways that more jobs could be created in the USA is if the majority of the American Citizens would start noticing where the products they buy are made, and when they see that most of those products are made in foreign countries, that should make them wonder whose economies they are helping and how many jobs in those foreign countries are created for their citizens. If the majority of us American citizens were to stop buying products that are made in foreign countries, and started buying more products that are made here in the USA, that not only would help the U.S. economy, but it would also help to create more jobs for American citizens too because of the increased demand for American made products that would cause the American companies to hire more people because of the demand for their products.

Some of the past and present politicians in Washington, D.C. are to blame for the exodus of American companies and jobs to foreign countries because of cheaper wages, more profits, and less corporate taxes. Jeff Immelt of GE is a perfect example of what is wrong with America when GE is allowed to employ more people in China than it does in the USA, and then be allowed to get away with not paying U.S. corporate taxes like it did in 2010.

No wonder people across this country of ours are angered with what is going on in this country.

Sincerely,

John Hollenback

Greenfield Twp., PA

Those protestors on Wall Street should quit bellyaching and get a job. Contrary to what many believe, jobs are easy to find. Just go to where they relocated in Mexico, China or Vietnam.

But, like everything, there's a downside to chasing jobs across land and sea. The commute can be taxing and working conditions are far from the best. The protestors may have to pay protection money to the drug lords in Mexico, or compete with child laborers in China, or sweat alongside of meth-smoking piece workers in Vietnam.

And the protestors will have to take a pay cut, about $22 a week in Vietnam, minus a charge for a bowl of rice and a bunk-bed in the company's dormitory.

There's no denying that a cross-border job search is daunting, but looking for work at home is equally discouraging. Since January 2009 when Obama was sworn in until April 2011, the U.S. lost 2,825,000 jobs according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Today, six months later, it's 3 million jobs.

Going back to 2001 to the present, almost 6 million jobs have evaporated.

But there is a positive side; America's export economy is booming. We export two products that are much in demand, jobs and dollars.

A scant 50 years ago America was a manufacturing heavyweight. Almost 30 percent of U.S. economic output was from manufacturing: cars, refrigerators, clothes, furniture, you name it - we made it.

Then is was discovered that overseas nations could make the same items at a fraction of the cost. The big-box stores, the China-marts, started to import these cut-rate goods and export jobs to foreign manufacturers and dollars to pay for their cheap imports. The result?

Domestic manufacturing took a nosedive falling from 30 percent of GDP to 11 percent in 2008. Today, America is a 98-pound weakling at 9 percent. The money to pay for what was formerly made in the U.S.A. was put on Uncle Sam’s credit card.

Every year since 1975 the U.S. has imported more than it exported. The trade deficit was paid for with IOUs called United States Treasuries. Thus far the bill totals $3 trillion. Of special concern, even alarm, is the U.S. trade deficit with China.

The total exports to China in terms of dollars and jobs is $1.5 trillion and 2.8 million jobs.

If the trade deficit with China continues at its present rate, this year will end with a record deficit of $285 billion and a lost of between 550,000 and 600,000 jobs.

In less than a lifetime, the U.S. went from the world's biggest creditor to the world's biggest debtor. The U.S. has succeeded brilliantly in making itself poorer and others richer, especially China.

But take heed, if there's one nation that would like to put our head on the chopping block, it is the Red Dragon. The monthly trade check Uncle Schmuck mails to the People's Republic of China for their slave-labor products has enabled it to rise from third world status to the world's second largest economy.

Following the line graph of economic growth to 2040 finds China as the alpha male. The U.S. will have the second largest GNP. China will be in the cat bird's seat for several decades while India surpasses the U.S. for second place in 2039 and the U.S. fades to third.

That doesn't mean we're okay until 2039 or 2040. It means that the geopolitical and economic sun is setting on the United States of America. The lens to the future is cloudy, but the future for the land of the free looks dark.

And it just got worse.

Pres. Obama has recently concluded trade agreements with South Korea, Columbia and Panama. Free trade deals with nations that result in a negative balance of trade for the U.S. - such as Mexico, China, and Vietnam - should be no deals; it's guaranteed to cost the U.S. a loss of jobs and treasure. And that's what this trade agreement will do.

However, our biggest problem is not Washington's spendthrift ways, our national debt, our incomprehensible tax code; and it's certainly not al Qaeda or the Taliban or goat herders in Afghanistan. The whoop-whoop-whoop of a red alert klaxon should be sounding for the deindustrialization of America.

It should, but it's not.

Is there not one politician, one leader, one man, who is willing to say, “Enough. We must bring our jobs back to our shores. We must rebuild our factories. We must staunch the outflow of dollars. We must stop committing economic suicide.”

And that's the worst part of it - there is no one.

Sincerely,

Bob Scroggins

New Milford, PA