Published: November 03, 2009 09:32 am      

Public forum, Nov. 3

Praise doesn’t seem fitting

Mr. Kraft’s letter acknowledging the wisdom, innovation, action, flexibility, ability to adjust, courage and aggressive agenda of Gov. Mitch Daniels caught my attention (Pharos-Tribune, Oct. 22). If I didn’t know better, he would have had me convinced all these positive attributes were deserved.  Let’s set the record straight. Mitch’s “experiment” was no experiment when it started; it became that only when it was clear it was a complete and utter disaster like much wiser people than he told him before he tried it.

Mitch and his “experiments” have cost Indiana taxpayers millions, and we cannot afford his on-the-job-training.

Take the Indiana Toll Road “experiment.” If it was working, Mitch would be standing at the toll booth with a camera crew patting himself on the back, so one can assume that “experiment” will fail somewhere in the future and then Mr. Kraft can use that “experiment” for another example of Mitch’s attributes. After Mitch is long gone our state will pay for this one big time.

Another “experiment” of Mitch’s was not getting the tax bills mailed on time for the past few years and turned out to be a complete disaster. For me, I’ll take Bob Peter’s (old trustee of Deer Creek Township) judgment over any “experiment” Mitch can think up any day. Indiana never had that problem before Mitch.

Another of Mitch’s “experiments” was to increase the state sales tax from 6 percent to 7 percent. That’s a 17 percent increase to you. If he wants to “experiment,” try cutting the tax to 3 percent to help the Indiana citizens? Now there is an “experiment.”

Why doesn’t Mitch “experiment” with having another election now that he has told the Indiana voters the truth about the economic conditions he was fully aware of before the election and has gotten worse since?

Now, there is another great “experiment.”

Letting Mitch “experiment” is similar to letting the captain of the Titanic “experiment” with his “full speed ahead” theory through the icebergs. Both of them would have been more successful if they had listened to people wiser than them. Both of their ships are now sitting on the floor of the ocean. It seems like the attributes Mr. Kraft was showering on Mitch were all the ones that were lacking in both the captain and Mitch. But that’s true “spin.”



Mike Smith

Young America