Obama's attempt at humor falls flat

Re: "Obama, Kimmel kill at Correspondents' Dinner," April 30

Thinking that he was being funny at the White House Correspondents' Dinner, President Obama said that he had one degree from Harvard, while Mitt Romney had two. Therefore, the president quipped, Romney was being a snob.

Of course, it was Rick Santorum -- not Romney -- who said that touting one's college education was being snobbish. Obama "missed it by that much."

But the media personalities and celebrities who fawn over our president were oblivious of the fact that President Obama's aim wasfarcically off.

Nathan Dodell

Rockville

Free markets include free movement of labor

Re: "Immigration declines but enforcement needed," April 27

It's a good thing that Byron York writes about politics, because he seems not to care at all about the economic implications of America's immigration restrictions.

York notes that illegal immigration from Mexico has declined steeply, but he laments that "at some point, the American economy will improve. What happens then? If the U.S. becomes a more attractive job market, and the government eases up on border security and workplace enforcement, illegal immigration will rise again."

American businesses and the consumers who rely on them need a reliable, legal way to hire the workers they require. Illegal immigration is so attractive because America's system for legal immigration is broken. Instead of offering solutions, York uncritically quotes Mark Krikorian, head of the anti-immigration Center for Immigration Studies, which endorses policies that would exacerbate illegality by driving more immigrant workers underground, forcing legal labor shortages in a recovering economy.

Unfortunately, for too many conservatives, their professed commitment to free markets doesn't seem to extend to the labor market.

Ivan Osorio

Editorial director.

Competitive Enterprise Institute

Washington

Board members get the money, we get the sacrifice

According to the "Arlington County Board Adopts FY 2013 Budget," available on the Arlington County government website, the county board raised our taxes at its meeting on April 21st. At that same meeting, members of the board raised their own pay.

I am troubled by this. It is not proper to place an extra tax burden on your constituents when a portion of the extra money will be used to give yourself a pay raise.

I do not begrudge the 2.8 percent average increase in pay for county employees, but being on a fixed income myself and unable to give myself a pay raise, I am outraged that my county board members are using their power of taxation to extract more money from me to reward themselves.

Whatever happened to the call from our political leaders for "shared sacrifice of the burden of government"? Where is the burden sharing when board members give themselves a pay raise, but give us the sacrifice by raising our taxes?

Cleborne Dean Foster

Arlington