Last week Barb Sorensen quoted from Leviticus that it was God’s answer to homosexuality to have them killed.

May I tell this good lady that James Madison and the other author of our Constitution were trying to set up a democratic republic, based on justice to all, and not death to some group. Nothing resembling a democracy appears in the Old Testament!

Next year is the 400th anniversary of the beloved King James Bible (1611). James I, of England, had a homosexual lover: the Duke of Buckingham. The duke controlled all patronage, favors, etc. passed out by the king. In 1628 he was murdered when he failed to give a promotion to an army officer. Should the king have been killed?

Mrs. Sorensen might check the lives of David Hume and John Locke, and she would see two men who the authors (Madison) were turning to for knowledge on democracy.

The federal deficit

Mr. Ken Peterson, in his letter, wants a balanced budget from the president. I seem to remember Mr. Peterson was a very good member of the school board. I never heard any reports on him that were bad.

Mr. Peterson, you are a very intelligent man. You would never expect a superintendent to submit a balanced budget if the cost of school was $10 million and taxes only gave him $7 million.

The president (any president) is faced with two wars, 800 worldwide military bases; the Veterans Administration; Social Security; Medicare; farm subsidies; interest on the debt; etc.

All of this costs $3.4 trillion (more or less). Taxes bring in $2.1 trillion. Therefore, there is a shortfall of about $1.3 trillion. How do we make it up?

Now here is what needs to be done, and will not be done, by either the Democrats, Republicans or anyone else. Cuts: 1. Save $200 billion per year by adopting Mayo’s health plan. The retired CEO of Mayo outlined this to Congress. 2. Cut farm subsidies by $250 billion. 3. Tell Japan, Korea, Germany and all of Western Europe to pay us for the Army, Navy and Marines we have on their soil and save $400 billion. 4. Raise Social Security age for full coverage to 68 or 67 years and raise the limit taxed from $90,000 to $250,000, saving $300 billion. 5. Make the drug companies give the public the same deductions they give the VA and save $50 billion on drug to senior citizens.

There it is, and every man or woman in Congress knows this.

One more thing Mr. Peterson should know. The Iraq War has cost $1 trillion to date, but will cost $2 trillion more over the life of all the 300,000 men who have post-war syndrome and must be pensioned and treated. This war was to cost $2 billion and paid for with Iraq’s oil. What happened?

Robert Sherman

Albert Lea