Letter: President’s fine record stands up to the facts

Friday, June 17, 2005 | 8:45 a.m.

In his June 8 letter responding to my support of President Bush, Paul Carman stated I was "speaking fiction and not fact." Anyone can easily verify every fact except for one error -- the U.S. gross domestic product has grown 4.4 percent on average each year since 2002, and not, as stated, just 4.4 percent since then.

The Bush tax cuts did not help "the rich at the expense of the poor," as Carman wrote. Everyone who paid federal income tax got a tax cut in proportion to the tax paid. If the socialist concept of a progressive income tax is acceptable to Paul on the up side, why is it not acceptable on the down side? The more tax paid, the larger the tax cut!

The only example of scandal Carman produced was mistreatment of prisoners at Abu Ghraib and Gitmo. Yet these are examples of personnel problems, not scandal. The problems are being addressed and the guilty are being punished.

Carman does not believe America is a "beacon of democracy." I guess one man's liberation of 50 million people and sowing the seeds of democracy is another man's waste of time. When was the last time America fought a war (other than among ourselves) against another democracy? The Carmans of the world forget there is a global war against terrorism being waged.

If Carman wants to define a judge who interprets the U.S. Constitution based on what is actually written in the Constitution as a "reactionary right-winger," I will accept that and pray that President Bush nominates many more.

F. JAY HARRELL