Readers write for July 23, 2010

How long can we continue to add to a growing budget deficit? Unemployment fell in June by 0.2 percentage points, but only because an estimated 800,000 Americans left the labor force entirely. Why would anyone get a job when they can receive more than a year in free income and numerous unnamed supplementary benefits?

Unemployment benefits are, of course, an entitlement. That's why we pay taxes. But for how long should they last? There's a fine line between assistance and enabling lethargy. According to J.P. Morgan Chase, we could reduce the unemployment rate by at least 1.5 percentage points by removing unemployment extensions. It's too easy to claim unemployment benefits, and at what point do we say that we've helped as much as we can? The time is now.

Nobody's denying that Americans are in need of assistance; everyone knows we're hurting, which is why the program was created in the first place and why there was bipartisan encouragement for its existence in years past. We do, however, need an incentive to work, and a push away from unemployment insurance for those who don't need it.

If we're going to keep extending this benefit, we then need to deduct from something else. Every year that someone uses unemployment benefits should delay a year of their Social Security benefits. Not only would this would limit the number of Americans who apply for unemployment, it also would alleviate pressure on a dissolving Social Security system. More debt won't stimulate the economy, and it's time for some alternative thinking.

NUBIA LUSTMAN, INVER GROVE HEIGHTS

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Republican concerns about the deficit and extending unemployment have rung hollow for me.

The proof that the unemployment filibuster was posturing is that the GOP has absolutely no plans at all to "pay for" extending the Bush tax cuts, set to expire soon.

And not once during a decade of so-called emergency funding resolutions for our wars has the GOP offered to find budgetary offsets.

I remain highly skeptical that Republicans really care about deficits. It seems much more likely that they have a talking point that they think will win some votes.

It is the job of the press to dig deeper, and in particular to hold the GOP accountable. If deficits matter for extending unemployment, then they surely matter for another trillion or more dollars in tax cuts.

RALPH WYMAN, MINNEAPOLIS

As an economics teacher who stresses the importance of diversity in the classroom, I find it jarring to be called "economically illiterate" for opposing Tom Emmer's tip credit ("A tip credit is better policy than politics," Opinion Exchange, July 20).

It is true that restaurant owners and patrons must bear the brunt of a wage premium to servers, but these groups are usually affluent and able to do so.

Noticeable for its absence is any exodus across the St. Croix in search of cheaper meals; the Minnesota wage premium does not seem prohibitive. Nor is it clear that recession-weary restaurant owners would expand business operations, casting into doubt any rise in employment the tip credit might achieve.

What Emmer's proposal does, in effect, is halt a transfer of wealth away from servers, who likely have a greater need for it, to the affluent. One need not have an economics degree to grasp the problem with taking income out of the pockets of those who need it most. Far from being economically sound, the proposal represents another attack by Emmer on the working people of Minnesota.

DEREK GANZHORN, ROSEMOUNT

In recent years, the influence of the Internet has become immense, but the scrutiny required to responsibly use what is found there has been seriously lacking.

We must realize that not everything on the Internet is legitimate or accurate.

PAM OLBERG, Minnetonka

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The real story is how Andrew Breitbart, Fox News and the far-right blogosphere maliciously and purposefully misconstrued Sherrod's position, and how a large news organization aligned with a right-wing pundit slandered an innocent person for political purposes.

Previously this kind of shameful quackery was brushed aside as simple fringe political ideologies. This is no longer the case. What we are witnessing is an attempt by well-connected extreme-right-wing organizations to deceive the public.

It is clear that such attempts have been successful in the past. I would plead with every credible news organization, starting with the Star Tribune, to clearly and unequivocally denounce the vile attempts of these powerful fanatics and to put front and center the clear and compelling evidence of what these persons and organizations are attempting.

A good dose of light is still the best defense we have against these kind of malicious frauds.

BRYAN HAUGEN, MAYER, MINN.

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When will Fox News announce the dismissal of Sean Hannity and others in their "news" organization for their role in the false story regarding racism at the U.S. Department of Agriculture?