Dear editor:  The air conditioning must not be working in Washington, D.C. At least, not in the halls of Congress or the White House.
This is obvious from all the frothing and foaming at the mouth that is presently coming out of the elected officialdom there. Reason and common sense seem to have evaporated in the summer heat, along with any semblance of reality.
The time to fight over a budget is when the budget is being drawn up, debated and voted on. The time to go back to the bank to make a new loan is when previously approved budgets have led to the treasury being exhausted and borrowing is required to pay the bills for expenditures already authorized.
The lies and half-truths coming out of that town are embarrassing. Political posturing passes for bravado, while representatives and senators make bombastic speeches for the camera in the middle of the night in an empty room in order to claim to the folks back home that “I told them so!” This is all absurd.
Our country desperately needs statesmen, not politicians – those who can accept differences of philosophy and perspective, assess reality for what it is, define the problems and debate solutions in the light of day and out in the open. And then decide the issues by voting – before the barn burns down, not after.
We need to do what Ross Perot suggested some years ago: “Cut their pay and send them home.” They are doing us no good whatsoever at present.
 
Sincerely,
Raphael B. Semmes
Savannah