Provide opportunities for those who need them

I agree with Paul Ryan up to a point on his premise of “equal opportunity, not equal outcomes,” however, the underlying assumption seems to be that everyone’s “opportunities” are equal [“Rich donors on the right know Paul Ryan very well,” News, Aug. 14].

The child of a teenage mother in a big-city ghetto is going to need more “opportunities” to be successful than a child born into a white, affluent family in the American heartland, as Ryan was. The Ryan budget, which cuts Medicaid, education and other social programs, guarantees that children and adults in poverty will have far fewer “opportunities” and much higher inequality as their “outcome.”

His refusal to tax the “job creators” at the expense of the rest of us for “the good of the economy” is almost laughable. CEO pay is the highest it has ever been; corporate tax rates are at record lows; and the stock market has been up to 2008 levels for almost two years. However, these “outcomes” among the “job creators” clearly have not made a better economy. Instead, there are fewer jobs, requiring longer hours with lower pay and fewer benefits.

We should focus on giving “opportunities” to those who need them. Those like Ryan, who don’t, are clearly doing fine with the unequal “outcomes” they already enjoy.

— Ann Morgan, Everett

“Self-made man”

We now have a new definition of a “self-made man” proclaimed on the front of the Sunday, Aug. 12 Seattle Times [“Romney’s VP choice a Beltway charmer”].

This is Paul Ryan, who comes from six generations of affluence that was generated by government highway-construction contracts. He has spent virtually all his adult life working for the big, bad federal government where he has also racked up more contributions from big banks than any other member of the House of Representatives.

Now he has the nerve and ignorance to preach to others about radically shrinking government and making people more self-reliant. What a dangerous phony! Mitt Romney and he are perfect spokesmen for the “throw everyone off the lifeboat but me” wing of the Republican Party.

— Mel Taylor, Bellingham