House Moves on Economy

* Re “Buchanan Spurs Congress to act on Economy,” Feb. 28:

Reading about the House of Representatives leadership’s reaction to the success Pat Buchanan has gained by playing on the economic anxiety of the American people, I have to laugh.

As long as House Speaker Newt Gingrich caters to Rupert Murdoch and other international cartel barons, and refuses to talk about raising the minimum wage, and tries to abolish the earned income tax credit, his concern about this anxiety rings very hollow.

Meanwhile, Majority Leader Dick Armey’s “Clinton crunch” falls short of reality because it doesn’t mention the downsizing crunch that plays to the bottom-line desires of shareholders and CEOs with golden parachutes, which does more than lead to stagnant wages, it leads to underemployment and unemployment.

Have Gingrich and Armey employed a new set of pollsters and focus groups to deflect focus from their mostly failed “contract on America” and are they now trying to convince low-income workers that capital gains tax cuts and curtailing of protective regulations will help them--or at least, help the Republican agenda?

EILEEN GERSHON

Orange