Government’s Role in Solutions

In his inauguration speech I was shocked when President Clinton said, “And once again, we have resolved for our time a great debate over the role of government. Today we can declare: Government is not the problem, and government is not the solution. We, the American people, we are the solution” (Jan. 21).

Being an octogenarian Democrat who first voted for FDR in 1932, I disagree that a government of the people and for them can’t act in times of crisis to solve, or alleviate, social problems. For example, take the chronic unemployment during the Great Depression, or the rebuke by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce to the appeal of President Clinton (Jan. 11) to private sector employers to create jobs to make welfare reform work.

I recommend a legislative solution. Follow the wisdom of President Roosevelt: Make the federal government employer of last resort.

JACK L. RUGH

San Gabriel

* I was glad Ronald Brownstein recognized one of President Clinton’s greatest successes during his first term (Washington Outlook, Jan. 20). Namely, that Clinton had helped Democrats get over an “outdated” political ideology “rooted in the 1930s.”

What we clearly need--since the liberals have utterly failed to produce a cataclysmic economic collapse in more than 60 years--are the sleek, modern ideas of Harding, Coolidge and Hoover of the 1920s.

What better time to turn to conservative ideas and policies than when the economy and stock market are in an unprecedented, record-setting decade-long climb.

BOB BONN

San Diego