I'm sure most educated Americans -- including Dusty Rhoades -- know that it's the Congress that passes laws and all the spending bills and appropriations for our nation.

So, please remember it's a Democratic Congress for the past two-plus years that's been in charge and passing all the appropriations and spending bills. It's been the Democratic Congress that has been in charge of overseeing how the money is spent and has had oversight of Wall Street, Freddie Mac, Fannie Mae and now $900 billion in spending with very little "stimulus."

It's also a bit unfair to blame everything on the Bush administration when the collapse of our financial institutions has occurred on the Democratic Congress' watch -- from members who promised when they took over that they would get everything back on track. Well done!

And get off Joe the Plumber's back. He's taken enough hits from the Democrats. He's an average Joe like most of us Americans and has had nothing to do with anything in our government to cause all these problems.

Jimmy Paulk

Pinehurst