I couldn't agree more with U.S. Comptroller General David Walker that the $38 trillion promised in Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid benefits will create a burden so heavy that it will cripple our economy and threaten America's competitiveness in the global marketplace. There is no more important issue than the long-term health and relevance of our economy.

We have a similar problem closer to home. Nevada is facing a $10 billion liability because of the Public Employees' Retirement System and the Public Employees' Benefit Program. Nearly 40 percent of our state employees are eligible for retirement in the next 10 years.

Unless our Legislature reforms these two public employee retirement programs, our state will either be forced to significantly raise taxes or dedicate a much larger portion of the state budget to paying these benefits, taking resources away from education, transportation, public safety and social services.

The long-term is just around the corner. We need to embrace our role as the stewards for future generations. As such, it is incumbent upon each of us to urge our federal and state elected officials to address these massive liabilities and work to reform entitlement programs.

Hugh Anderson

LAS VEGAS

Dumb move

To the editor:

I will be 60 years old in a few months, and I'm trying to put myself in 60-year-old O.J. Simpson's place. I'm in Las Vegas for a wedding. I hear a guy has some of my stolen sports memorabilia and he is staying in a hotel across town.

Instead of calling the cops to get my stuff back, I get a few guys together and we plan to break into this guy's room. Do we kick the door in? What if he's in the room? Do we wear masks? OK, how many guns do we have? Do we shoot the guy if he resists? Do we kill him or leave him wounded? Do we leave by the door or jump out a window?

After reading your coverage of Mr. Simpson's arrest, I think jumping out a window would have been his best choice. At least, it would have been the smartest thing he did that day.

Cary De Grosa

LAS VEGAS

Multiple sources

To the editor:

For once, I don't disagree with Thomas Mitchell's conclusions in his Sunday column -- even if he did take the long way around the barn to make them. He could have just written the last two lines: "Real men don't chant bad puns. They turn off the TV and pick up the newspaper."

Fortunately, the Review-Journal doesn't have to be the only newspaper we pick up. We can read USA Today, The Washington Post or The New York Times.

Mr. Mitchell would have us believe that the Review-Journal is immune from the stigma of articles lacking depth, facts and history. Nothing could be further from the truth. Case in point: In an editorial last week, the Review-Journal railed against the passage of a $106 billion transportation bill that provides funds for highways and bridges because it was "pork-laden."

The editorial conveniently ignored that we are spending this amount approximately every 77 days at the current level of federal spending. As a wag once said: "A billion here and a billion there, and pretty soon you're talking about some real money." But why single out this particular bill and keep silent on the $9 trillion dollar national debt?

So, yes, Mr. Mitchell, we read newspapers. But, for balance, we don't limit ourselves to the Review-Journal.

Joseph Wild

LAS VEGAS

No common sense

To the editor:

How can anyone think that the Clark County School District's attendance zone decisions regarding the Ingwaldson family, reported in your Monday edition, is "in the best interests of the children" (a phrase we see so often)?

Bureaucrats who blindly follow rules and deny waivers to those rules, to the exclusion of common sense, deserve no support. The next time I have the opportunity to vote for more money for the school district, the vote is "no."

Pat Sharp

LAS VEGAS

Traffic cameras

To the editor:

In response to Sherman Frederick's Sunday column, I was so glad to see that North Las Vegas is entertaining the idea of traffic cameras.

It should save a lot of lives with all the idiots who run red lights. I can't believe that they wouldn't pay for themselves very quickly and then provide the cities with revenue if they were installed throughout the Las Vegas Valley.

Dawn D'Errico

HENDERSON