To the editor:

The Republicans are having a field day criticizing the president and Treasury secretary concerning the AIG million-dollar bonuses. And in the midst of this financial crisis, it is fun to have a diversion as long as we don’t forget that it was the Republicans and their president who withdrew the financial safeguards that kept this country prosperous for the past 50 years.

It was the Republicans who were controlled by the corporate greed-mongers, who took from the poor and gave to the rich. It was the conservative Rush-followers who forgot that when you destroy the middle class, you eliminate the feeder system to the entire economy. These are the historical facts that we need to remember the next time we forget that, without safeguards, greed will win out over ethical practices every time.

E. Kent Hayes,
Lawrence