Coming soon, Nov. 4, 2008, you will have a very important decision to make about the next U.S. president.

We all read the headline, “Biggest bailout since Depression: half trillion dollars.” Struggling to prevent financial catastrophe, the Bush administration laid our a radical bailout plan with a jaw-dropping price tag, over of a half-trillion dollars or more in worthless mortgages and other bad debt held by institutions. (T&D Sept. 20). In the same issue, The T&D Region (Orangeburg, Bamberg, Barnwell, and Allendale counties) had reported double-digit unemployment (jobless) rates. Orangeburg County was 12.7 percent, while Allendale County has state’s highest jobless at 17.2 percent.

So, as you make this important decision about the presidency, please consider changing the political party in the White House. Let me explain my reasons in considering that.

In the last eight years, Republicans were in charge of the presidency (G.W. Bush and company) and had the majority in the U.S. Congress six out of those eight years. During this period, the facts are as follows: When President Clinton (a Democrat) left office in 2000, the unemployment rate was 4.2 percent, the surplus was $286 billion, national debt was $5.7 trillion, and a gallon of gas was $1.46. By comparison, when our current president (a Republican) leaves office in 2008, the unemployment rate will be over 6.1 percent, the national deficit will be $357 billion, national debt will be $9.7 trillion, and the price of a gallon of gas is over $4. As a result of this comparison, I would like to share with you a story and ask you an important question.

The story goes like this: You were sick and in pain, and went to your doctor asking for help. He gave you a prescription. You trusted him and followed his instructions. Several years later, the pain is still there and your doctor gives you the same medicine. You go home and your pain persists and increases. You ask your wife what to do. She gives you a strange look and raises her voice and says, “Get a second opinion .”

As to my important question I borrowed from a great Republican President Ronald Reagan, “Are you better off today than eight years ago?” Do you need a second opinion?

In my opinion, the mess that we are in today was caused by three main factors: 1) Two wars, one of them for oil; 2) Deregulation of the financial and banking industry that resulted in more greed; and 3) American business moving overseas (made in China) for cheaper labor and more greed (profit maximization), closing factories and adding to unemployment. Therefore, if we bring our troops and business home and re-establish federal regulations against the greed of America CEOs, we could start putting our house in order. By the way, with regards to this proposed bailout and as taxpayers, we can’t privatize profit and socialize losses.

I don’t have the space to summarize Sen. John McCain’s records during his 26 years in Washington, but this record will show that he voted 90 percent with President Bush. Recently, McCain showed that he will say anything to get elected. For example, one day he said, “The Federal Reserve needs to stop bailing out failed financial institutions and get back to the core business of managing our money supply and inflation.” The next day he reversed his position in favor of the bailout. To me, John McCain talks like an elephant, walks like an elephant, and he’s surely still an elephant.

Don’t bail out McCain by keeping the same Republican Party for more four years despite what happened to us in the last eight years -- a major government failure here and abroad. Instead, vote Democrat (the Obama/Biden team). This way, you truly will be putting country first.

-- Abe Salama, Orangeburg

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