Letter: Voters need to seek out information

In his Oct. 25 letter, “Vote to reduce government,” Dennis Rozario asserts that the GOP is the party that would reduce government. I beg to differ.

Non-military government employees were reduced by 380,000 during former Bill Clinton’s time in office, and increased by 53,000 during the presidency of George W. Bush.

While both Jimmy Carter and George H.W. Bush made slight reductions in the numbers, Ronald Reagan increased them by 238,000, all the while chanting that government was too big, fooling the gullible into believing the lie that Republicans are for smaller government and Democrats are not.

All told, President Obama has 35,000 fewer non-military employees than we had 30 years ago, thanks mostly to most Democratic presidents, while Republican presidents during that time largely bloated both government numbers and our debt.

That said, my real concern with Rozario’s letter, other than the simplistic view that smaller government alone, not smarter government, is the answer, is his suggestion to just vote according to party. If you are not willing to check out each candidate’s stance, history and record, regardless of party, I suggest you don’t vote at all. We don’t need more people voting so much as we need more informed people voting. Just listening to attack ads on television, your favorite “news” source or the gossip in your social circle will not make you an informed voter.