After reading the shameful Sept. 13 Times Republican editorial “Maybe a temporary government lockdown is necessary. The alternative may be worse” by Mr. Stephen Moore, a senior fellow at the Heritage Foundation, my reaction is that he is being intellectually dishonest! The infamous anarchist the Joker of the Batman saga would find a welcome mat at The Heritage Foundation.

Stephen is critical of the Covid lockdown but we should all be thankful we didn’t die from COVID-19! No one knew how dangerous the virus was! It could have been a lot worse.

Shutting down non essential businesses, schools, churches, entertainment except for essential entities was paramount at the time. Only a fool would think otherwise. Millions died from COVID, it was terribly opportunistic and could find the most vulnerable to infect and kill. Shame on Stephen for downplaying those anxious times.

Folks should not be distracted by Stephen! The Heritage Foundation has attacked Social Security, Medicare, Public Education, Government Welfare Programs and regulatory agencies that are essential for protecting human safety and health and that protect our air, water and soil.

However, when it comes to complaining about the bloated military industrial complex nary a peep from the Heritage Foundation and it is a microphone for huge tax breaks for the super rich and powerful corporations.

Men like Stephen like to holler about debt but never support a living wage nor do they approve of a progressive income tax. They think farmers should operate on a shoestring and complain about farmers getting a subsidy when farm prices fall way out of sight.

I read an article that the top one percenters have about $6 trillion stashed in offshore accounts, and yet if wages would have kept up with inflation since the 1970s wage earners would have earned $42 trillion but instead only about $2 trillion up to 2023! The same can be said about family farmers because they have no price floor; they have lost trillions since 1953 when the parity price floor was abolished.

How about it all you urban workers and family farmers do you like creating all that surplus value and not getting paid for it? Just think you are paying inflated property taxes to help bail out the super rich plutocrats who are running this country thanks to ole Stephen at the Heritage Foundation.