Corporations need taxing
Re: the April 30 letter “Congress, close the tax gap.”
I agree with this letter 100%. For years I have asked the question, why doesn’t everybody pay taxes? These companies that make billions and pay no taxes is just not right. Are you proud to be an American company? Then show it. Step up and do your part. What you are doing is cheating on America. And here’s the ironic part: They can afford it rather than passing it down to the less fortunate in the form of tax increases.
David Hart
Marana
Third party needed
Many citizens are becoming independent for a reason. They are getting out of the Republican and Democratic parties with most becoming independent. The two-party system has not brought us the best choices at election time, and things need to change.
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And yes, I support President Joe Biden because he was elected. Hopefully, some day there will be an active third party that is meaningful. It clearly will make our government process more democratic.
As an independent, I voted for Sens. Kyrsten Sinema and Mark Kelly and previously voted for Sens. John McCain and Jeff Flake. I hope both will demonstrate independent thoughtfulness as opposed to buckling under the two-party leadership positions. I believe they both know the numbers in what was a Republican state and understand their future election will depend on independent voters as well as their party.
Dave Locey
Foothills
A balanced approach
Re: the May 2 article “Police teams’ goal: solutions, not arrests.”
The “offender is also a victim” and the “rehab for everyone” philosophies became popular in the early 1960s. The “offender is also a victim” philosophy recognized the individual as a product of a bad environment — bad neighborhoods, unemployment, substance abuse, poor education and gang involvement.
At the time, the focus of the criminal justice system was to lock the door and throw away the key. The “offender is also a victim” philosophy recognized the individual could be a good person, just caught up in bad circumstances.
Many began to recognize the need to prevent crime through prevention techniques. Others recognized the core reasons for crime also had to be addressed — drug addiction, poverty, homelessness, mental illness, etc.
A reader recognized three TPD officers was not enough, which is why they work with community agencies to help those in need. This is known as a balanced approach to criminal justice.
While more should be done, TPD is taking the right approach.
Ray Bynum, Ed.D.
Northwest side
Hollow Republican Party
As a party, the Republicans and their leadership deny the truth, propagate fiction, lies and conspiracy theories and denounce those members of their own party who stand up on their own two feet and reject this dangerous and misguided approach.
Republican bluebloods like the Romneys and Cheneys are no longer welcome as members of their own party. The Republican Party has been virtually hollowed out to nearly the point of no return. Full of sound and fury, signifying nothing.
Paul Simon
Northwest side
A thanks to Hansen
Re: the May 4 article “Baffert’s rise to top is fit for Hollywood.”
Thank you, Mr. Greg Hansen, for the wonderful write-up on Bob Baffert. I have followed our local experts for years, and this year’s Kentucky Derby was made even more fun with Hansen’s articles.
Doris Lequieu
Foothills
Barnes pay deserved
Re: the May 5 article “UA reworks Barnes’ deal.”
Adia Barnes’ new contract and pay is fabulous news! Hey, all she had to do was take her team to the championship to get it while the boys just show up, post lousy records and get fired to get their millions. Too bad it took a near poach for UA to give her the compensation she deserves.
We will be loving our season tickets even more knowing she and the team, are on their way to getting it all. Expect to see a full pep band and all the other fan delights next season.
Linda Heffernan
Midtown
Biden’s blame is pathetic
In an interview with NBC, Joe Biden said that the Trump administration’s failure to cooperate during the election transition is the cause for the current border crisis. How pathetic of Biden.
Numerous migrants interviewed by journalists have revealed they felt invited to come by Biden’s campaign rhetoric. Within a couple weeks of being in office, Biden reversed Trump’s border policies, including halting border wall construction, ending the Mexican Protocols, ending asylum agreements with Central American countries, limiting ICE removals, re-instating “Catch and Release,” etc.
Between the months of January and March, the number of border arrests by U.S. agents are near a 20-year high.
Biden now wants to give Central American countries $4 billion in taxpayer money. As VP under Barack Obama, he oversaw $1 billion in aid to them that was a failure.
Steve Denver
West side
No vaccine, no stimulus
Paying people to take the shot is not a good idea. Presumably this will be administered in the same way as the pending proposal to forgive college student loans: only those who have not paid their loans receive a benefit, while those who did the right thing and paid off their loans receive nothing.
Rather, if they feel the need to pay people to get the vaccine, let’s make it a prerequisite for receiving the next stimulus check. No vaccine equals no stimulus. What could be simpler and more fair than that?
Charles Nelson
Sahuarita
Hypocrisy is stunning
Re: the May 2 article “’Talker’ arrives without parts.”
Proponents of SB 1457 purport to only have the best interests of vulnerable children in mind in criminalizing doctors who abort fetuses with genetic abnormalities. If that’s true, why won’t they fully fund the Arizona Department of Health Services, AHCCCS and the Arizona Division of Developmental Disabilities so that families like Emory Webster can receive essential services once special-needs children are born?
Gov. Doug Ducey, if you really believe “there’s immeasurable value in every single life — regardless of genetic makeup,” then submit a budget that honors the lives of differently abled children by funding the services they need to live their lives to their fullest capacity. Anything less is hypocrisy.
Laura Penny
Foothills
Climate change challenges
The Biden administration wants to put a carbon tax on products whose end result is an increase in greenhouse gases. Coal and petroleum products fit that category.
The Biden administration also wants to fix our infrastructure: roads, bridges and high-speed rail system.
The only problem is that carbon is needed to mix with iron to make steel. Steel is used to make the rebar used to hold concrete together to build bridges. Steel is also used to make the rails for trains to run on.
Tar to fix roads is one of the products of oil.
On one hand, the Biden administration is saying we need to go green. On the other hand, he is raising the cost to do it.
Thomas Wenzel
East side
Re-defining bipartisan
Bipartisan support for a bill in Congress should mean that the majority of Republicans and Democrats in the country support the law. Just because Republican legislators ignore the majority of Republican voters does not mean that the law should not be called bipartisan.
There are many examples. Regarding voting laws, 59% of Republicans support making Election Day a national holiday. Regarding guns, 70% of Republicans support background checks at gun shows and 55% support allowing people convicted of felonies to vote after they served their term. Regarding marijuana, 55% of Republicans believe that marijuana should be made legal. These numbers are from the highly respected Pew Research Center.
There is bipartisan support for all of these issues. Republican Senators and Representatives vote against their party when they maintain a party-line vote against everything the Democrats propose. Our Congress needs to show it can be bipartisan.
Republicans, vote with your party.
Jonpaul Barrabee
Oro Valley
New twist on an old theme
Re: the May 2 article “Police teams’ goal: solutions, not arrests.”
I was pleased to see TPD immersing into the world of mental illness, substance abuse and homelessness. In particular, TPD’s Mental Health Support Team, which was inaugurated in 2014, caught my eye.
However, I thought back to nearly 40 years ago when my colleagues and I created one of the very first programs in the country that integrated mobile mental health clinicians with local law enforcement and was called the MAC (Mobile Acute Crisis) Team. We established a hugely successful model that caught the attention of much larger metropolises, including Houston and Seattle.
So what happened to this unique, innovative approach? In short, funding reared its ugly head. As Tucson continued growing exponentially, the financial subsidy failed to keep pace with the demand. So, I salute the efforts of TPD’s newish programs, but I cannot help but think of Tucson’s own MAC Team. It was clearly a Tucson original.
D. Gordon Hope
Northeast side
