State or party?
Re: the July 21 letter “Decisions and consequences.”
A recent letter to the editor hoped to inform Sen. Joe Manchin that his duty was not to the state he represents, but rather to his party. That said, the framers originally created the Senate, in part, to “protect the rights of individual states and safeguard minority opinion in a system of government designed to give greater power to the national government.” Originally, the Senate was elected to represent the state, while elected congressional members represented localities. If the party no longer cares about individual states, then why even have a Senate, or Congress? It would certainly be much less expensive to just vote for a political party, and let the 10 or so party bosses enact rules, laws and treaties. As an aside, if there is now a litmus test covering elected officials that take donations from interest groups, then I’m betting 100% would fail.
People are also reading…
Bob George
North side
Mayorkas lied about border
On July 19 while attending an Aspen Security Forum, DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas stated that the border is secure. He has made that statement before. This is an outright lie! The Border Patrol is on track this fiscal year 2022 to make over 2 million encounters of people illegally entering the country. Many applying for unmerited asylum and being released into the public. Mayorkas recently testified before Congress that in fiscal year 2021, 389,000 people entered illegally circumventing Border Patrol apprehension, i.e., those that died in the tractor trailer near San Antonio. In response to Mayorkas “secure border” comments, a Border Patrol agent told Fox News that, “They are liars, and anyone who believes them are fools.” Do Mayorkas and Biden understand the costs to American taxpayers for educating over 250,000 unaccompanied children allowed entry in FY 2021 and 2022, who do not speak English and are under-educated? Or those who entered with serious medical issues, or those that have criminal histories in their home country?
Claudia Wilson
Midtown
EVs use fossil fuels, tooBiden and progressive Democrats are trying to push people into buying electric vehicles (EVs) to eliminate CO2-emitting, fossil fuel-using vehicles. I think part of their strategy is to intentionally keep gasoline and diesel prices at the pump high to entice people into buying EVs, which need charging for several hours and have a driving range of about 250 miles. They have a battery life of about 8 to 10 years. Who would want to buy a used EV knowing they will need to spend thousands on a new battery?
The U.S. Energy Information Administration reported that in 2021, 61% of electricity used across America was generated by fossil fuels, aka coal, petroleum, natural gas, etc. 19% came from nuclear and 20% from renewables (wind 9.2%, solar 6.3%, and biomass 1.3%). So, before you run out and buy that more expense EV, that may not be re-sellable, think of the indirect C02 emissions you are causing and the dire effects to the planet.
Donna Davis
Northwest side
Biden’s rape victim story
Re: the July 27 letter: “Biden’s rape victim story.”
This letter is shocking. Not that his policies may not always be good for everyone, but to suggest a correlation between his immigration policies and a 10-year-old being raped. Further to suggest he used this as a pretext to discuss abortion is disgusting.
No feeling about the victim, only a reason to dislike Biden.
Given this logic, it would also make sense that many deaths in the U.S. from COVID, are a direct result of Trump’s not acting earlier to create a national program to eliminate or reduce this disease. Also, his necessity to be helicoptered to Walter Reed Hospital for treatment.
To suggest that crimes are made by some who are here illegally, neglects the overwhelming evidence of crimes committed by U.S. citizens.
Please, let’s not be so political about one particularly heinous act.
Peter Strauss
Marana
Legal or religious basis
Re: the July 27 letter “No religion in Dobbs opinion.”
One must wonder why this writer has exerted so much effort on this distinction without a difference. He suggests that reading Justice Samuel Alito’s rather lengthy diatribe will convincingly clarify the purely legal as opposed to religious basis for his argument — a subjective claim that abortion does not qualify as an unenumerated right under the Ninth or Fourteenth Amendments due to the moral implication of its historical rejection.
Anyone who has defended the pro-choice position knows full well that the opposition’s arguments, for all intents and purposes, are non-secular to the extent that any exceptions are background noise.
Why get mired in this disingenuous attempt to divert attention from that reality? Arguing this technical point does not strengthen the court’s position but only bolsters the impression that it is an indefensible ruse, and I think the writer knows it.
Such distraction does not obscure or negate what an objective read makes evident, namely, that at the core of this document is poorly disguised, non-secular moralizing.
Robert Gavlak
Midtown
Rich favored over Arizonans
Re: the Aug. 2 full page paid ad on Page A6
I was deeply disappointed to see an ad by the U.S. and Arizona Chambers of Commerce urging our senators to vote “No” on the Inflation Reduction Act now before the Senate.
The bill imposes a minimum 15% tax on the income for corporations with profits greater than $1 billion. While small Arizona businesses pay their fair share, it’s enraging to see the Chamber defend companies like Amazon, who paid $0 in U.S. federal income tax on more than $11 billion in profits before taxes and received a $129 million tax rebate from the federal government in 2018.
This short-sighted point of view favors the ultra-rich and ignores the growing costs of climate change to us all. When the Chamber goes begging to the government for handouts to solve our business-killing, climate-change-intensified water crises, who will pay for that?
Whose side are they on?
Edward Beshore
North side
Money talks, but people vote
Re: the Aug. 2 full page paid ad on page A6
The Chamber of Commerce’s full-page ad urging Sen. Kyrsten Sinema to oppose the Inflation Reduction Act is inaccurate and deceitful. “Raising taxes on investment in Arizona” really refers to stopping the “carried interest” tax break on ultra-rich hedge fund managers in Stamford and Greenwich, Connecticut. “Stifles growth in Arizona’s life science industry” means finally allowing Medicare to negotiate prices on a few common drugs. That’s just the “free market” at work, which the Chamber apparently does not like if it reduces the outrageous profits of “Big Pharma.”
The Chamber has the bucks for full-page ads — but all of us can vote. We supported Sen. Sinema before, but if she votes against the Inflation Reduction Act (never mind the title — it does a lot of good things) we will not again. We care and we vote. We hope you will, too.
Gary Hammond
Catalina
In retrospect
During the 2016 elections, candidate Donald Trump asked Black voters regarding voting for him “what do you have to lose?” Simple answer, watch the Jan. 6 hearings.
Enough said.
Michael Fisher
Midtown
Why won’t Star criticize Biden?
During the four years under Trump, the Arizona Daily Star did almost weekly critical stories about his border policies. Columnist Tim Steller often attacked the Remain in Mexico policy and did sympathetic stories of migrants at shelters here. Curt Prendergast routinely did negative stories about the border wall related to its environmental impacts, contractors involved, animal impacts, etc. He also camped out at the U.S. District Court here during the zero tolerance policy of actually federally prosecuting persons for illegal entry.
There have been few if any criticisms by Steller, Prendergast or anyone else at the Star over Biden’s disastrous border policies. I believe the Star approves of them and they have no regard for the adverse impacts these migrants will have on our public schools, health care, criminal justice and social welfare systems. There will likely be over 2 million Border Patrol apprehensions and hundreds of thousands of non-apprehended “gotaways” this fiscal year ending September 30, all during COVID. Where are the Star’s criticisms of Biden’s border policies?
Haley Roberts
West side
Just one question
Re: the Aug. 1 letter “More than unkind words.”
I was struck by the letter writer who felt she was being treated unfairly because she is a conservative Republican.
She’s right. Conservative Republicans are not the problem. Their values deserve respect.
But just one question must unfortunately be asked: Do you believe that Joe Biden legitimately won the 2020 election?
If the answer is yes, I suspect this Democrat and a conservative Republican can agree on a lot of things, including no more name-calling.
If the answer is no, now we have a problem.
You can’t deprogram millions of people. Who or what will get us back to normal order?
Larry Fleischman
Northeast side