I faithfully read letters from the people in the Watertown Daily Times, and often I am inspired to respond, especially when a topic is a hit-the-nail-on-the-head variety. One such was written by Bob Johnson on Nov. 11. Let me paraphrase in my own words what I understood Mr. Johnson has suggested (as a beginning), to bring fiscal responsibility (New York state budget) back on track.

He is calling upon every elected decision maker from Gov. David Paterson on down to every member of the state Senate and Assembly to take a 20 percent cut in their salaries. Although 20 percent sounds a little high to me, I totally agree with his concept.

There is an old officer training philosophy that goes like this, "Never give an order to another that you are unwilling to carry out yourself." In other words, leadership by example.

While the real (root cause) for our economic woes has been 30 years of partnering at the federal level with the big corporations, effectively destroying the private sector and American middle class, some drastic action will have to take place in the meantime to fill the tax gap from lost earnings of millions of Americans.

Make no mistake about it, It was the middle class that paid the bills for America. Have you ever read the statistics of the largest American corporations that have paid no taxes at all for years?

In the meantime, we cannot expect millions of Americans (marginal income earners), who are working hard and playing by the rules to assume even more financial concessionary responsibility caused by corporate greed, (they refer to it as taking advantage of opportunities), and incompetent federal leadership. In other words for millions of Americans, they have been reduced to the limit of their ability to contribute, period!

I believe Mr. Johnson was right on. How often have we seen private and public sector leaders alike aggressively start at the bottom to plug financial holes?

In the meantime, keep in mind one thing: If we had the middle-class income earners that we have lost plus the ones we should have gained, we would not be seeing our roads full of potholes, our bridges falling into the ravines below and our budgets running on empty.

Dean Hitchman

Potsdam