Dear Editor:

No, I am not masochistic but I'm beginning think that perhaps the consumer is plus our government officials may have more than a few psychological problems!How can they say there is no inflation? How can they drop out of their formula the price of fuel? How do they select what items are to be included or excluded from their convoluted equation?Have you ever noticed that when some sheik passes gas the oil companies cry Agamemnon and they must raise prices of their products? Why even the mere mention of a price increase equates to an automatic price increase at the pump! Why is it that every spring or fall the oil companies say "we have to convert over from making heating oil to making gasoline?" Hasn't anybody with an I.Q. one point above vegetable life ever consider that maybe they should build a few more facilities to handle the transition?I also wonder if any of our elected muckedy-mucks ever go by themselves to the grocery store? What used to fill two bags of groceries for twenty bucks, then thirty bucks for the same items now costs close to sixty bucks! And then I see families with a cart full of the basic groceries and I wonder, "how the heck can they afford to spend two - three hundred dollars on food?" And then I'm seeing more and more plastic being utilized. And they know that sooner or later they will have to pay the piper for the dance.It's election year and every gal-dang blasted news network battles it out for who gets "the bottom feeder award" for reporting nonsense journalism.When was the last time you heard any reporter ask a candidate a serious question about the economy and give the candidate more than thirty seconds to answer it ? And why must they interject their own views on the issues instead of reporting the facts? Are we becoming a society of sensationalism and muck-rakers? If it appears in the "Star" it has to be true! (I have a bridge in Brooklyn that I'd love to sell you !).I have only missed one primary election in the past 47 years. I always ask the guy who would argue politics, "Did you vote?" Nine out ten times he'd say, "No". So far this year the reporting makes me want to join the "Projectile Vomit Team"! Oh, I'll still vote but it will be painful this election. Guess the innie-minnie-mighty-moe method should suffice!!Joseph P. KubertHometown