I read the July 1 edition of The News & Advance and paid particular attention to the article written by Media General News Service reporter Catherine Amos.

Rep. Tom Perriello, D-Fifth District, was quoted, “I have fought — and voted — time and again to protect families who paid into unemployment insurance and have fallen on tough times.”

What caught my attention was that Perriello thinks that individual families pay this tax. This is a tax on employers and is assessed by the Commonwealth of Virginia on anyone who hires people to work. This tax is not paid by individual taxpayers but is only an employer tax. When a company furloughs people who then receive benefits, the tax assessed to that company goes up to account for those benefits paid out.

If not so sad, it would be humorous that our representative in the Fifth District does not understand how it works. I, for one, miss Virgil Goode.

Let us all work together to put a representative in Washington who is a fiscal conservative and shares the values of the people in this district. Why can’t Washington, D.C., adopt a balanced budget for our great nation like our great state of Virginia.

Don’t be deceived by slick commercials. The proof is coming out of Washington right now, and it is killing our jobs. Get someone who knows what he is talking about and can work for job creation. Sometimes it may be necessary to kill legislation that kills jobs. In my opinion, Perriello has consistently supported measures that hurt employers and therefore hurt job creation.

If we stay on this path, no one will be working to pay all of these increased taxes. I will work hard to support his opponent, Robert Hurt. It is my hope and prayer he can bring some sanity to that position.

GARET K. BOSIGER
Appomattox