To the editor:

Lipstick and a new administration will not solve the nation’s problems of energy, Social Security, illegal immigration, health care and the federal deficit. Incumbent senators and congressmen are the real problem. Both parties in Congress have been negligent in solving these problems for years. They have failed our country. Their time is spent at partisan bickering and raising money for re-election.

How long have they been in office? How many senators and congressmen are multimillionaires? Have they ever used lobbyists’ money for pet projects and re-election? Do they have sons and daughters serving in the military as they cast their votes to fund wars?

Incumbents sat on powerful oversight committees when the secretary of the Treasury nationalized Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. Were they all sleeping when the secretary added $5.4 trillion to the U.S. debt over a weekend? Foreign nations are dictating our financial policy, and it comes at an inappropriate cost to the taxpayers.

It takes incompetent incumbents from both parties to make these kinds of decisions. The congressmen that created these problems are still in power. Is it any wonder that current approval ratings of an unpopular president are still three times as high as for Congress? Future generations deserve better. I plan to write each entrenched incumbent that represents me and ask them to resign from office for the good of the country. I urge you to do the same.

Joe Herynk,
Lawrence