Readers write (April 8): Paul Ryan's budget, government shutdown, humor, spring, Star Tribune's 'right wing agenda'

Three-quarters of Thursday's Opinion Exchange page ("A serious man with a serious plan") consisted of the reactions of nine mainstream newspapers and columnists to U.S. Rep. Paul Ryan's proposal to drastically reduce the deficit by cutting Medicare, Medicaid and other "unsustainable" programs for the poor.

The opinions were fairly well-distributed among Democrats and Republicans. What is outrageous is that except for a single sentence from the St. Louis paper, there was absolutely no mention of cutting defense.

Supporting our troops is such a sacred cow of the mainstream press that it dares not suggest doing what is really necessary to balance the budget: bringing them home, closing the 700 bases we have in more than a hundred countries, and drastically reducing wasteful defense spending instead of slashing aid to the old and needy.

DEAN R. DEHARPPORTE, Eden Prairie

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A serious man with a serious plan? Please, pundits, spare us the savvy chin-stroking: Slashing top tax rates? Scrapping financial reform? Eliminating capital-gains taxes? Cutting programs for college students and disabled veterans?

Ryan's budget reads like the wild-eyed, wistful fantasy of every maladjusted Scrooge in democratic history. The fact that this is being hailed as the vanguard of serious discourse should put the final nail in the coffin of "liberal media bias."

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As we begin to count the ways a shutdown of the federal government will hurt us, here's one left over from the previous such fiasco, in 1995. I was serving then in our embassy in Warsaw, and suddenly we could no longer pay our Polish employees.

Some of them had been with us for decades, including during the communist era when working for the Americans was a risk that made you and your family suspect to the party authorities.

Many of these staffers lived paycheck-to-paycheck; if we could not pay them what we owed them, they could no longer meet their own obligations.

The solution in this case was to set up a loan fund with private contributions from American officers. That got everyone through the crisis, but it also left all of us less than proud of the politicians who created it.

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Make it a real government shutdown. Shut down everything. Start with paychecks to members of Congress. Then add air traffic control and military. No such thing as essential services. Everything must stop.

GORDON KELLEY, DUNDAS, MINN.

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To the gentleman (Letter of the day, April 6) who feels that it is acceptable to "enjoy a good laugh" at the expense of others: I am also a senior citizen who learned political correctness at my mother's knee, except she called it "being considerate of other people's feelings."

They weren't raised by my mother. Or, perhaps, they have forgotten or turned their backs on the lessons of their mothers.

JACQUELYN GRAHAM, LAKEVILLE

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So state Rep. Jim Abeler of Anoka thinks he has a funny T-shirt (showing a government dome and the words "Never Underestimate the Power of Stupid People in Large Groups," StarTribune.com, April 6).

He thinks it wholly inappropriate to have public discussion and debate about important decisions that affect our state. Our democracy is something to be ridiculed. It would be better if a dictator, or perhaps a small cabal, made all the decisions for us.

On second thought, perhaps his T-shirt simply states the truth.

DAVID GREENE, MINNEAPOLIS

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Attention, bikers: Please ride as carefully as you would drive an automobile. I nearly hit a couple of you guys the other day when you crossed against the light. I'm a biker, too, but I mind the traffic lights, and I look out for drivers who may not be paying attention to business. Their vehicles are much bigger and stronger than I am.

HARRIET PHILLIPS, MINNETONKA

The Strib has an agenda (Readers write, April 7)? Ya think? Just look at these opinion pages, which religiously feature two regular local contributors -- both extreme right-wingers. Political counterparts? Zero.

The Star Tribune used to be a decent newspaper, but those days are long gone. Of course I know I'm wasting my time; this note will never make it into the paper, which has better things to do with its precious space -- like publishing complaints about the musical selections on local politicians' telephone answering services.

IRIS E. LEE, NORTHFIELD, MINN.

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