Yes, I believe in Government

Michael Tanner has it wrong (Letters, Divining the Future of the G.O.P., New York Times, March 31, 2007. Page A26). I believe that an effective government could have dealt effectively with "Hurricane Katrina, the Walter Reed Mess, and potential Social Security and Medicare bankruptcy.

To do so, it would have had to have managers who were competent rather than the ideologically compatible placeholder that the Bush Administration has appointed in agency after agency. Did Mr Tanner know that under President Clinton, FEMA was acknowledged to be a highly effective agency - because it was run by disaster-relief experts.

To be effective in dealing with these crises, the government would also have needed financial resources which have been sorely diminished by the Bush tax cuts and by the diversion of funds and energies to the Iraq war.

I am sure that sensible solutions can be found for the Social Security and Medicare problems. But they will have to be collective solutions (based on insurance) not the privatized accounts for retirement and health care proposed by the current administration.

Sent to the New York Times