Editor, Gazette-Journal:

As Thomas Edison, one of the great inventors of our lighting systems today said, and I quote, "Yes we need to return to the government looking after a defense of our people in America and get out of the peripheral social aspects of business." There was an old saying at our shipyard by Mr. Huntington, "We will build good ships at a profit, if we can; at a loss, if we must."

How true it is of the United States government today that you and I have supported and it is a never-ending endeavor, because what the president can’t dream up, the Congress will certainly dream up in their provincial areas all over our country. And, of course, the citizens of our country become intoxicated by what they consider to be freebies and things they can’t possibly do without.

Then come the responsible citizens that want to curtail and limit this largesse and they become a selfish small group of people that make a lot of money, but pay over 60 percent of what it costs to run the government. These same citizens are saying today, let’s get to balancing the budget and let’s get a program together to get our debts paid off, with our largest creditor being China. When we are spending money we don’t have and continuously borrowing it from China and other countries, we become a pawn of that government.

A lot of it is because of the demands of our Congressmen who can’t wait to please their constituents regardless of what it is doing to our country and then they holler "no tax increase and no budget cuts." How inconsistent. Look at the example of world-class companies like UPS, FedEx and American Telephone, where, in many cases, costs have come down dramatically in recent years and have gone down for our citizen and business clients.

Yes, it is high time that we slow down our government that has gone crazy under a number of presidents and Congress that wanted to do the expedient and not the smart, sensible and cost-conscious way to do it.

I am for Mitt Romney because he has some values and has an intelligent way to bring them to fruition in our great country, and he also is a man that can bring solid citizens to varying aspects of our government that likewise have the brain power and the will to make a difference.

God bless America and let’s keep our country not worse than we found it, but better because we have disciplined ourselves willingly to make it reality.

David L. Peebles

Ordinary, Va.