I am stunned at just how incompetent our Congress really is. Members waited until the very last second to do a very poor job. They said we avoided the fiscal cliff and in the next breath they said our payroll taxes went up 2 percent. It feels like a cliff to me.

I believe if you took 100 average people randomly off the street and brought them together and asked them to solve a set of problems, they would come up with some good ideas in about three days. They might not solve every problem but at least they could come together and make an earnest attempt to solve the problems in three days.

On Dec. 20, I sent U.S. Rep. Doc Hastings an email in which I told him that if we fell off the cliff I would hold him personally responsible for this failure. Doc has been in Congress since 1994, and here we are. That tells me one of two things. Either he has had no good ideas at all or he has good ideas but doesn't have the leadership to make them happen. Doc, could you please tell us which one it is?

RANDY CHISM, Tieton