To the editor:

I feel I must respond to Kent Hayes’ letter of April 5.

In my opinion, one reason this country is deteriorating at an alarming rate is that misinformation is tossed about without any verification as long as it fits someone’s political agenda. Second, American voters accept the information as gospel simply because it comes from a media source.

For example, Hayes states, in regard to income taxes, that “General Electric and several of the oil companies paid nothing and received billions in rebates.” This is simply fabrication, but was accepted because it was reported by the “credible” New York Times. It has been corrected by several sources, including CNNMoney.com (“The truth about GE’s tax bill,” April 4).

Hayes goes on to state that Sam Brownback, Lynn Jenkins and all our other GOP legislators are “the puppets who make the laws that permit this outrage” and “our existing economic woes are a direct result of Republican policies.”

It was recently discovered that tucked away in Obama’s national health care law is a provision that has already paid nearly $2 billion to unions (surprise), state public employee systems, and large corporations to subsidize health insurance for early retirees (WashingtonExaminer.com, April 5). As I recall, there was not a single GOP vote to pass this monstrosity.

Finally, it was the Democratic party that abdicated one of Congress’ most basic functions: passing a federal budget. Now, according to the White House press secretary, “time is of the essence” to avoid a government shutdown. This dog won’t hunt any more. There are too many channels to access the truth rather than accepting “credible” drivel.