Editors, Vineyard Gazette:

In W.R. Deeble’s latest letter, he carpet bombs Fox News, but then admits: “The recent budget deadlock . . . can be blamed on adherence to principle on both sides.” Republicans “just claim they are protecting the people against an unpopular, ruinous, radical agenda.”

If polls are to be believed, both parties in Congress are in trouble. More important, so is the president, who has sunk to 37 per cent approval with nearly 55 per cent disapproving of his performance. The new Wall Street Journal/NBC News poll finds 78 per cent of us feel the country is on the wrong track. These are sobering numbers that indicate real pain and frustration with our government.

I agree with Mr. Deeble that the Republicans in Washington could be doing a better job of packaging their message of smaller government, eliminating waste, attacking the deficit and improving the health care system. Defunding the train wreck that is Obamacare was not the way to go, but the overall plan to shrink government and cut federal spending is a good thing. The truth is that the only time Mr. Obama and the Democrats have actually cut spending was when they were forced to accept the sequester by Republicans.

Republicans are frustrated by a grinding recession which has been worsened by Obama’s radical agenda. When you combine the official unemployment rate with those who are no longer counted by the government, you arrive at the real unemployment rate which is over 18 per cent. And as Obamacare comes on line, data is pouring in from across the country showing that three quarters of new jobs are part time. The long-term implications of this budget-busting entitlement are already clear to those who are looking at the facts. By ramming this plan through Congress with no bipartisan support, the president guaranteed efforts to fight it. Obamacare is the law of the land, yet it may fall of its own weight soon enough.

Republicans are rightly upset at a president who stubbornly refuses to talk to their leaders and who repeatedly brags he will not negotiate on any spending issues. Meanwhile, the federal debt is mounting with no end in sight. If Democrats keep refusing to address their spending problem, their ruinous agenda, then the country will collapse sooner than we think. History will be hard on all our political leaders but especially on Mr. Obama and his friends in Congress.

We are watching as the Republican party has a healthy debate over major issues of the day. Let’s hope they get their message together before the 2014 election. The good news is that they only need to win back six seats to regain the Senate. Then Mr. Obama and his numerous tsars will be forced to face the ugly facts of our current financial and economic mess.

Peter B. Robb
Holliston and Oak Bluffs