September 23, 2001

Dear Editorial Board:

Congress has decided the airlines need relief in the form of tax payer dollars. Has a sound financial analysis been made? And did the analysis show that the Airlines, out of all the businesses affected by the September 11 event, are the ones who deserve the relief the most?

Or is it that no financial analysis was made, and that the airlines took advantage of the situation, knowing that the news media and the politicians would not look at the facts?

Since September 11, $1.5 trillion has been lost in market cap, and those losses are felt by everyone who owns stocks in their 401k or IRA accounts. Those unemployed in the US include virtually every business in America, not just the airlines.

As far as having the ability to stay in business, the airlines have more cash as compared to their market caps than virtually any other industry. Continental has $1 billion in cash and their market cap is $969 million, Northwest has $1.35 billion in cash with a market cap of $1.1 billion, American has $1.5 billion in cash with a market cap of $3.1 billion, and Alaska has $370 million in cash with a market cap of $561 million (your Federal Government has no cash and $5.7 trillion of debt).

Most airlines have at least 50% of their market caps in cash. To give you a comparison, Microsoft is said to be "cash rich" and their cash to market cap is 10% or one-fifth of most of the major airlines.

Big business will always try to maximize profits, no matter what. For you in Walla Walla who think that the government giving money to Alaska means your service won't be affected as much? The Alaska Air Group is the holding company for Horizon and Alaska Airlines, if the government gives money to Alaska, the CEO and board of directors of the Alaska Air Group will decide what to do with the money. There is no guarantee they will use the money to support service to Walla Walla or any other small community. If it doesn't maximize their profits they aren't going to do it.

And, those are the facts. Jack Nicholson once said in a movie, "You can't handle the truth." Maybe that's the reason the news media and politicians are so good at keeping the truth from the middle-class, they don't think America can handle the truth.

Sincerely,

Dear Editorial Board:

On September 11, you stated, "Today Americans lost our naive belief that we are safe from widespread terrorist attacks."

Speak for yourself. I was not, and I am still not, naive about war and terrorist attacks. Even though I was not born at the time, I do know and will always remember what happened on December 7, 1941.

I have been concerned for a long time about the Liberals touting that more cuts in military spending are needed. In 1960 defense spending was 52.2% of the total outlays of the Federal Government. By 1980 defense spending was down to only 22.7% of the total outlays, and by 1999, defense spending was only 16.1% of the total outlays. And the Liberals are still crying about too much money being spent on defense.

Wake up Liberals and smell the real world for awhile.

Sincerely,