In any event, the letter writer goes on about the last five years as being a total calamity. Would he have written this if the article on the front page of The New News Tribune about the improving state of the national economy had appeared a day sooner?

Also, it was not that long ago that a deregulated and laissez-faire approach drove this country’s economy into the ditch and from which we are still recovering. Granted, things are not perfect but the signs of recovery are fact-based and real.

Is that really an accomplishment to be proud of? I think not. Particularly when you consider how the number was achieved.

The labor force participation rate remains at a decades-low 63.3 percent. If participation had held constant since Obama’s term began, the jobless rate would be 11 percent. So the lower unemployment rate was achieved by having people drop out of the job market. That doesn’t exactly bode well for a strong economy.

Furthermore, the retail work week tumbled to a three-year low and total retail hours worked fell nearly 1 percent – the result of employers slashing work hours in an effort to avoid Obamacare employer mandates. That doesn’t sound like much of an economic recovery to be hyping.

But lean government meant drastically cutting back public services and social benefits. This contributed to lowering the median wage in the United Kingdom to a level not seen since the Great Depression.

By the end of Thatcher’s term, the poverty rate was higher than it had been at any time in the last 70 years. She decimated UK industry and bloated the financial sector, making the country’s least productive individuals richer than they had ever been.

She did indeed break the unions and eliminate most government regulation of business, but keep in mind this most relevant similarity between the UK and the United States: In both countries’ most prosperous years, from 1950 to the early 1970s, labor unions were strong and business was extensively regulated by government.

Reading Byron York’s opinion piece, I was struck by how very important this conflict between the president and Congress has become. In York’s view, it is all about “winning” the battle. I was under the impression, until the last four years, that it was about governing.

This is not some contest, and it is not a gladiator match. It is about making government work. As a voter, I made my choice very clear last November, as did a majority of Americans. That is what democracy is all about. At some point, this game-playing needs to end for the security of our nation. We are sending a message of turmoil and weakness to our enemies.

As a tax-paying citizen, I would like Congress to actually be at work, doing their jobs. Just prior to the sequester, they took a 10-day break for Presidents’ Day. They came back for four days and left for another long weekend.

That is an insult to every citizen of this nation. They collect a salary of $176,000 per year, plus expenses. Holding our economy hostage repeatedly is not helpful or productive. I have come to believe we are being blackmailed into changing our votes for future elections.

Delay and deny is not the business of our government. At some point, respecting the choices of the American voter needs to begin. The tyranny of the minority harms this country both at home and abroad.

This is 3 percent of the total spending for this year. Since the great recession started, the average taxpayer has suffered for more than this 3 percent cut in income.

We would have been happy if 3 percent were the limit of what we have had to adjust to. We have higher health insurance costs, higher gas prices, higher food prices, higher college costs, and on and on. We have had to pay for this with much less than a 3 percent reduction in income.

Yet all we hear is that this 3 percent cut will ruin the economy. The reason for this is that government does what it always does when it faces a loss of money: It cuts the services that affect people the most first. It punishes us for not giving it more money. Governments first cut the front-line services while protecting the faceless, overpaid, lifetime bureaucrats who do nothing but shuffle paper.

Businesses do the exact opposite. When faced with lower revenues, they get rid of waste and expand services to their customers in an attempt to improve.

I would like some government official to explain why a 3 percent cut is so devastating and why the first cuts always punish the taxpayers?

The most serious economic challenge facing the American people is the continuing job crisis. America will not be able to stabilize the national debt over the long term unless we fix the economy first.

An American with a job is an American who will pay their fair share of taxes, thus contributing to the stabilization of the national debt rather than being a detriment to it. Our top priority must be creating jobs by investing in infrastructure and education, raising wages, reducing inequality and increasing economic security.

Middle-class families in America need more economic security, not less. Our economic problems are not caused by overly generous Social Security, Medicaid or Medicare benefits. Social Security has not added one dime to the deficit, and the projected imbalance in Medicare and Medicaid over the long term is a direct result of the hyperinflation of health care costs.

Across-the-board “sequestration” simply must not be allowed to happen.

For example, Jindal’s America:

• Relegates women to the lowest form of human life – following men and the unborn. Denying women the right to make their own medical decisions is the worst form of tyranny.

• Shoves gay people back into the closet by denying them the right to marry whom they choose.

That’s just for starters. Perhaps the speech was written long ago and he didn’t want to change it, but given that two major indices were closing in on all-time highs the same week he was bashing government economic policies rendered his comments uninformed at best.

To stop being the stupid party is an admirable goal. I hope the Republicans keep trying.

I believe, as ordinary citizens, we must educate ourselves on our fiscal issues so that we can advocate for responsible solutions. We need to accept that there will be pain but work hard to be sure that no one sector of the population bears the brunt of that pain.

We need to stop bickering and start brainstorming together. We should strongly communicate our ideas to those who represent us. We simply cannot tolerate the partisan behavior that is present in Congress.

We, the people, must insist that our leaders find the courage to make the hard but critical decisions that we need right now. Ours may be the most important role of all if we really want to get something done.

But wait a minute, the Congressional Budget Office says that the compromise bill just signed will add almost $4 trillion to the national debt over the next four years (TNT, 1-1). May the good Lord save us from too many such fruitful accomplishments.

The only bright lining I see is the fact that the state has a congressman who continues to exhibit concern for what is best for the country. I tip my hat to Rep. Adam Smith once again for voting no on such a mishmash of legislation.

Our representatives in the other Washington have managed to beat the clock again. However, it seems that this is just a repeat of the battle to raise the debt limit in 2011 and possibly going back further.

It has been known for at least 10 years that the U.S. is overspending and needs to lower spending to at least the revenue. This latest fix just seems to kick the can down the road to March or thereabouts. All the same problems will still be there, plus the debt limit will need to be raised again.

The American public needs to realize this is a time when any fix is going to hurt. A combination of spending cuts and tax hikes will be needed.

For too long, it has been thought that you can get something for nothing. All I have to say is that it looks like the time has arrived to pay up. The free ride is over, and it will hurt everyone – some more than others, but it will hurt.