No lies here
Re: the Aug. 17 letter “Lies are lies.”
A recent letter complained that the “Inflation Reduction Act” does not reduce inflation and is for this reason a lie propagated by Democrats and leftists. I disagree; there are no lies here by either party.
Bills introduced to Congress are named in a manner to gain support. As they pass through the legislative process, contents are amended to garner support. Therefore, when finally presented for signature, it is likely that some aspects of the original bill are altered or even no longer present. Why don’t they keep changing the name along with the contents? Congress has a system for identifying bills in process and their status. Name changes would lead to chaos (and probably not allowed).
Michael Burdoo
People are also reading…
West side
Water conservation
Do we think that now would be a good time for the Southwestern states of California, Nevada, Utah, Colorado, New Mexico and Arizona to require that local native plants and plants that can survive on available rainwater be planted into our landscaping? Perhaps no watering of landscape plants should be permitted except for the establishment of native and drought tolerant (and the more drought tolerant the better) plants should be permitted?
Should we be limiting swimming pools to community-use pools (public, schools, motels, apartments, condominiums, etc.) and ban residential single-family pools and limit the size of residential single-family spas?
Should we be increasing our use of recyclable “sewer” water?
I wonder.
Bill Kendall
Downtown
Let’s do nothing
Re: the Aug. 15 letter “Climate activists fooling themselves.”
A brilliant idea! Let’s not even try, let’s do nothing.
Mark Patterson
Oro Valley
Inflation Reduction Act
Consequences of “The Inflation Reduction Act of 2022” ... Unintended?
The legislation will not increase taxes on the average everyday American. This act is to close tax loopholes only on the super rich and finally make them pay their fair share of taxes.
The statement is true, but the “elephant in the room” is what else is in this bill.
This bill imposes a “Corporate alternative minimum tax” of 15% and will increase taxes on certain select high-wealth earners.
There is an enforcement arm in the bill that steps up IRS enforcement activities. Eighty billion will be allocated for the next 10 years to increase tax collectors; 87,000 new agents.
The IRS conducts 600,000 audits annually; new enforcement could allow 1.2 million audits annually. There are 2,755 billionaires in the U.S. Where will the IRS turn their attention? Small businesses and middle-class Americans.
Great news, wealthy taxpayers/corporations will pay their share of taxes, but the real tax burden will be on small business owners and individuals.
Jeff Moore
Northwest side
Job opening in 2024
Benefits: Free housing paid for by taxpayers; personal chef and staff available 24 hours a day; numerous bedrooms available for wealthy friends; plane and car expenses included.
Professional job requirements: Find billions of dollars to rebuild Ukraine after Russian withdrawal; deal with Taliban after spending trillions of dollars fighting them for 20 years; find funds to stabilize Social Security and Medicare without calling them tax increases.
Personal job requirements: Massive ego and knowledge that the lives of your children and grandchildren will be under intense scrutiny 24/7.
Please apply: 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW. Washington, D.C.
Charles Schultz
Northeast side
Climate critics — the facts matter
Re: the Aug. 12 article “Act won’t deliver on climate, inflation.”
Richard Carlson’s op-ed claimed the Inflation Reduction Act won’t deliver on climate. His biography suggests credibility, but his words say otherwise.
The Energy Information Administration reported energy-related CO2 emissions dropped 14.3% between 2005 and 2019, before COVID hit, while GDP grew by 63%. Why? Greater efficiency, growing renewables, and yes, more natural gas.
Carlson is wrong about electric vehicles. A Union of Concerned Scientists 2020 report says the average U.S. electric vehicle emits CO2 like a gas auto that gets 91 mpg. In Arizona, with more coal in our electric mix, it’s 73 mpg.
He falsely claims that wind power ebbs at night. Daily variations in wind depend on location and height of the windmill. In many locations wind output increases at night.
Carlson suggests renewables were responsible for recent blackouts. It’s widely reported that the Texas failures were mostly frozen natural gas pipelines, while German and California’s problems were historic heat waves caused by climate change.
Edward Beshore
North side
Religion in power?
Catholicism arrived in the Supreme Court and it is a concern. Women are subservient in the Catholic Church. It is run by a hierarchy from priest to pope of mostly old men. After 53 years as a Catholic, I left because of its treatment of women. That was before their global pedophile crimes and the criminal cover up. Plus there is the recent revelations of murderous treatment of indigenous children in residential schools.
The conservative Catholics allied with the Evangelicals in support of Donald Trump, a person who lied consistently, cheated on his wives and convinced his followers to overthrow the elections, a mainstay of our democracy. Radical Evangelicals, many who have become militant, tie guns to Jesus, who was not violent.
Is this our moral compass? Plus, a rule by minority is not democratic. Notice the recent Supreme Court rulings favoring these groups. We need to get to the middle and sanity.
Rozanne Plotnik
Green Valley
Keeping me awake at night
Re: the Aug. 19 letter “GOP energized after FBI raid.”
The writer of this is what is keeping me awake at night. She and her ilk fail to grasp the seriousness of Donald Trump’s actions. Calling the FBI and DOJ corrupt is the rallying cry of the far right. In their way of thinking, corrupt does not apply to Trump. For example: Pathological lying is OK. Groping of women is acceptable. Calling for officials to overturn elections, OK. Calling elections rigged and corrupt just fine. Appointing people into positions of power that later end up in prison is OK. Inciting a mob to attack our capital and to take out Pence and Pelosi is just great. Taking secret documents from the White House and calling them “mine” is a widely accepted practice. Complaining of being persecuted by the FBI and DOJ for doing their jobs is okay. Excuse me, but please name me one ex-president that has such a glowing résumé. He has only himself to blame for the actions taken against him, not Democrats, the FBI or the DOJ.
Nick Nicholas
SaddleBrooke
Congress is back
After more than a year of starts and stops by the 117th Congress, I’ve been pleasantly surprised to see our representatives in Congress were able to pass several great bills this summer. In fact, much of what they’ve accomplished will make life better for ordinary people. These include such things as lowering health insurance premiums, making prescription drugs more affordable, making it easier to build semiconductors in America and incentives to tackle climate change.
Democrats are delivering on their agenda. A lot of the thanks goes to Arizona’s own Mark Kelly, who has been a champion for these bills since Day 1. These are tough times for a lot of people, but Sen. Kelly is doing what he can to ease the economic burden, and he has gotten Congress to go along with him. Please join me in supporting Kelly and all the Democrats running for office this November. Let’s keep this track record going!
Bobbi Zimmer
Midtown
Federal laws
There are many Donald Trump supporters that are outraged that the FBI conducted a search of Mar a Lago. There had to be enough evidence that there were documents there, that should not be, to convince a judge to issue a search warrant. By being outraged they are saying it is OK for Trump to break laws. Unreal. What are they thinking? Is he above the law? This says a lot about their thinking. Even they have to admit no person is above the law, even their political “savior.”
Dale Hutchings
Northeast side
Civics education
I see that retired Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer is joining with Justice Neil Gorsuch to promote civics education. I wonder if any of those lessons will include anything about telling the truth during employment interviews. Brett Kavanaugh and Amy Coney Barrett certainly displayed none during theirs.
Richard Govern
Foothills
