Auditors offer layer of security
Transparency and oversight are two processes we taxpayers want to see when government officials are spending our money. Apparently some City Council officials may not believe that it is a worthwhile expenditure in our current city budget.
The City of Fort Wayne’s Internal Audit Department’s responsibility is to see “that laws are followed, resources are used efficiently and economically, and, among other things, that risks to the city are minimized.”
Call me old-fashioned, but I am reassured when someone takes an independent look at how taxpayers’ dollars are handled and spent.
If standard operating procedures are not in place or being followed, then it is Internal Audit’s job to ferret them out. It should be looked upon as an opportunity to improve.
A lot of policies and procedures are implemented behind closed doors in our Citizens Square building, and a lot of taxpayer money passes through those doors as well. We should all be assured that our dollars are being carefully watched by our Internal Audit team. Too bad they can’t have oversight on the spending as well.
LIZ BROWN Former City Council member Fort Wayne
Rein in foreign aid allocations
We agree with William L. Cook’s letter about giving Egypt foreign aid (March 8). Our embassy in Cairo was attacked on Sept. 11, 2012. Is this money rewarding bad behavior or trying to buy our safety?
When addressing U.S. foreign aid, the standard answer is that it is “a drop in the bucket” compared to entitlements. Our answer is that these “drops” add up. We have written Rep. Marlin Stutzman, telling him this very thing.
How is it that we ordinary citizens have the common sense that the president and Congress lack?
FRED and NADINE DRAYER New Haven
GOP far adrift from its moorings
A national conservative group is stepping in to help Gov. Mike Pence. “Americans for Prosperity” is helping push through legislation here in Indiana.
“Americans for Prosperity” was launched by the oil billionaire brothers, Charles and David Koch. These brothers have been known for fronting special interest groups to work against any initiatives or protection for workers and workers’ environments.
These new extreme Republicans want to cut taxes to a level that will not support entitlements, including Medicare, unemployment insurance, Social Security and funding for college grants.
Citizens United is another dangerous extremist group. They have no regard for the average citizen. This group puts big business first.
Citizens United vs. Federal Election Commission proved where their loyalties lie. This case grants corporations the same First Amendment speech protection as you and me. This case opened the floodgates of million of dollars spent on TV ads in favor of what is good for their special interest.
Dwight D. Eisenhower, one of my favorite Republicans, believed in Social Security, unemployment insurance, labor laws and openly said the party was at risk from “wealthy oil millionaires.”
As a registered Republican, what has happened to my party? Where are the Ronald Reagans or the Eisenhowers?
LAURA McCANN Spencerville
Sequester distracts from real issue
This melodrama that is supposed to be our elected officials conducting the people’s business is getting tiresome. The latest contrived crisis designed to scare low-information voters and make the Republicans look bad is the sequester debacle.
Yes, it was a meat cleaver approach, and designed to be stupid, but we’re being lied to about the whole process. When they talk about cuts, they’re not actually cutting spending, but only reducing the amount of this year’s automatic budget increase. The fact is the U.S. will spend more in 2013 than it did in 2012 after the sequester.
It’s estimated that the U.S. government will take in a record amount of taxes this year. And we’re told the problem is not enough tax revenue? On top of that, the Democratic-controlled U.S. Senate has not passed a budget in more than four years, one of the few things its is actually charged with and paid to do.
What we have is a spending problem, in spite of what Obama told the speaker of the House, but we’re still not doing anything serious to solve the long-term problem. Running around saying the world is going to end if we reduce the increase in spending is not doing us or our country any favors when we have a very real long-term financial crisis that is in fact a threat to the very survival of our nation.
KEN SELKING Decatur
