LETTERS: Spending our way out, electric cars and more

We need to spend our way out of this

When you're in a hole, keep digging. The political philosophy on which one runs in 2010 is cut federal spending, do not raise taxes, reduce the size of government. This is a philosophy to keep digging in the hole. After the most recent unemployment report of practically no new jobs except for Census takers , the hole keeps getting deeper. The only way out is for the federal government to give states money for schools, roads and other infrastructure.

In 2020 we can look back at 2010 and see the obvious error, or we can start getting to the right policies now. We have to spend our way out. What about the deficit? In 2020 we'll have two choices of deficit: the huge one that is there because we kept on digging, or the more sensible one, when we finally realized that we had to spend to keep the economy growing.

How do we pay for it? We try for sensible tax increases (another dirty phrase).

My plea to the politicians: Do what's right, spend us out of this mess.

Allen Leboff

Great Neck

Put clean electricity before electric cars

A recent letter writer's heart is in the right place , but the issue isn't that simple. Although electric cars don't produce any harmful environmental pollutants directly, they do, obviously, need electricity. As more people buy electric cars, believing they're saving the environment, electricity demand also continues to rise, meaning power plants have to meet that demand. Currently they do that by burning coal and by burning more coal, we would be making the environmental problems we face even worse.

The key is to put the horse before the cart! Before we start coming out with electric cars, we have to produce electricity in an environmentally friendly way, with renewable energy sources.

Robert Dunne

Hicksville

LIRR OT may be cheaper than hiring

A recent article regarding overtime payments to LIRR employees didn't address the cost of hiring additional engineers, conductors, etc. Overtime payments are normally a symptom of a company not having a sufficient workforce. When a company hires new employees it must provide them with a benefit package and training. Many companies prefer to pay overtime rather than incur the costs associated with new hires. It may turn out that it is cheaper for the MTA to pay overtime than it is to hire a substantial number of new employees.

Martin J. Morris

Port Jefferson Station