Letter Of The Day

Bush's gift to America. Price of oil on Jan. 20, 2001: $22 a barrel. Price of oil on Aug: 8, 2005: $64 a barrel. Increase: 190 percent.

-Keith Nichols, Perry.

and

In his Aug. 8 column, George Will suggests that Ford, GM and Chrysler increase their profitability by "trimming some of the benefits the United Auto Workers won when the Big Three were the world's largest automobile companies."

Well, George, how about this solution: that the United States join the rest of the industrialized world and implement a national health-care system for all its citizens. This would allow Ford, GM and Chrysler to cut $1,500 off the cost of every vehicle!

They would then be more competitive in the marketplace, and they wouldn't have to cut benefits for the men and women, past and present, who do the kind of work in the automobile factories that George Will and his friends couldn't handle for one day.

-Gary Sanders, Iowa City.

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