Check the facts

Today’s (letter - Oct. 9) contains several outrageous and blatantly false (but often-repeated) charges, and I’ll address only two of them – for instance, that President Obama has issued more executive orders than any other president in history. (I heard the same thing the other day from a man who came up with the number of 900 executive orders!) Through September 2012, Obama has issued 138 executive orders. In his first four years in office, George W. Bush issued 173, Clinton 200, Reagan 213, Richard Nixon 247, and Dwight Eisenhower 266. This is information that is generally available, but you probably won’t get it if all of your “facts” come from Fox News (and possibly, the BCR). The writer also states as fact that President Obama and Secretary of State Clinton want us to register our guns with the United Nations and that the logical consequence will be that all citizens will have to turn in their guns. I’m assuming he’s referring to the U.N. Arms Trade treaty, the content of which has not even been finalized yet. And it has nothing to do with restricting the ownership or sale of guns in the U.S. but rather seeks to control the illicit international trade of arms. And just incidentally, no U.N. Treaty can bypass the normal legislative process in Congress (which would be loathe on both sides to delete the Second Amendment). But I can just imagine the number of people who will have read this letter and go on to share its ridiculous statements as fact in conversation with others equally ill informed.

And finally, I am always curious about those who criticize people who feel “the government owes them a living.” I am going to assume that they (including the writer who identifies himself as 76 years old) all refuse to cash their Social Security checks and pay for their own medical expenses rather than using their Medicare benefits. After all, that would make them part of the “welfare nation,” wouldn’t it?