Regarding the Nov. 20 letter, “Military gets way too much of the pie”: The idea that creating programs for our infrastructure as President Franklin Roosevelt did to grow the economy is naive. Many economists believe that his programs prolonged the “Great Depression” and it actually took World War II to lift the country out of it because we shifted to a country that built things, which creates wealth.

The best way to move this country forward is to promote the principles of free enterprise, limited government, individual freedom and strong national defense. Under the writer’s ideas, we will be asking the government for handouts. We are a country of hard-workers and innovation, not a welfare society.

We need to stop blaming everyone else for the problems created by our bad decisions. No one forced people to buy homes they can’t afford, banks to mismanage their funds or auto manufacturers to over-pay, over-compensate and not “right-size” their organizations. We need to grow up and make the hard choices to rebuild — not quick fixes, real solutions.

Todd Welch

Everett