Tucson Speaks Out: June 8 letters of the day

As a conservative I welcome the beginning of an effort to reduce our national debt. However, trying to reduce spending without some increase in taxes is not a balanced approach. It really means that the burden is being placed mostly on the recipients of government aid, Social Security, and the rest of us with average financial assets.

Almost a third of the nations' wealth is said to be held by the top 1% of the citizens. It would not be unfair redistribution of wealth if Mr. McCarthy asked them, and us, to contribute a little more to solving our debt problem.

John Ryan

SaddleBrooke

Thanks to those that kept us out of default

One doesn't have to be a Republican or Democrat to vote for a bill that keeps the country out of default — you just have to be an American. The negative votes in the House was led by the far right which we knew would happen. The Senate was the surprise in that six times the number of Republicans than Democrats went against a bill that kept the USA from being an international embarrassment and would have caused so much heartache for all of us. Here's hoping that the next time these politicians run for office, their constituents will remember that they put their own selfish concerns before that of their country — Democrats — Republicans — independents.

Bernie McCulloch

Nogales

ASU Medical School

Re: the June 2 article "ASU will build its own medical school."

As a taxpayer, I was disappointed to read that the Arizona Board of Regents has approved the establishment of a new ASU Medical School. If the goal is to increase the number of physicians in Arizona, would it have not been more practical to have funded an expansion of the U of A Medical School that already exists in Tucson and Phoenix, has an existing faculty and is already accredited? An unnecessary duplication of state medical schools seems a waste of public resources. The last line of the article provides a clue to this otherwise perplexing decision: "...the addition of a medical school also burnishes the legacy of Crow..." The best interests of the citizens of Arizona should be the focus of the Board of Regents, not burnishing the legacy of a college president.

John Leonardo

Midtown

U.S. Defense Spending/Debt Ceiling

Re: the June 1 article "Why not cut US defense spending?"

The Daily Star published a column by a foreign affairs expert, Daniel DePertis , which raised a provocative question in light of the recent debt ceiling drama in Congress. Both parties took defense spending “off the table”. DePertis argues taxpayers and the public interest would be better served if defense spending were subject to scrutiny, too.

Defense is an important and major part of the federal budget. But if the government is to become more fiscally responsible taxpayers deserve a thorough Congressional examination of all expenditures.

I would go further. The deficit must be addressed. Interest on the debt is estimated at $395.5 billion this year.

Those dollars could support important services. Both parties must step up. Both must abandon their political deference to defense spending by making fiscal responsibility bipartisan. And the Democrats must embrace the need to address the deficit, not cede the issue to the Republicans.

Jim Greene

Marana

Jan. 6 questions

So many questions ... Let’s set aside the lack of evidence that the January 6th assault on our Capitol was caused by anyone except rabid MAGA supporters who decided that democracy just wasn’t working in their favor. People suggesting that the actual problem on January 6th was “Antifa” make me wonder. “Antifa” is merely a designation that means “Anti Fascist.” Do MAGA supporters knowingly choose to support Fascism? Does it really not give MAGA supporters pause that all of their hero’s “friends” were authoritarian politicians? And how does a person who inherited millions from their father, still manage to feel like a poorly treated victim at the end of the day? Better yet, how do all those people who did not receive millions from their fathers, enthusiastically follow someone who brags about how wealthy he is, constantly asks for money and fundamentally has no respect for them at all?

Susan Miller-Pinhey

Foothills

Why we are stuck with Biden and Trump

Re: the June 5 article "Three reasons we're stuck with Trump and Biden."

I was amused by Megan Mcardle's editorial. Her gist was we need well informed voters to make thoughtful choices, that's the media's job, and they're doing a terrible job.

Some examples: Governor DeSantis announced his candidacy for Presidency on Twitter. What got reported and was the technical glitches with Twitter. Nothing was reported that would inform voters about his policies. The Twitter glitches will be forgotten by the end of the day.

President Biden takes a spill after a speech to the Air Force Academy. No mention was made of the substance of his speech, or his plans to deal with the rising tensions with China, Russia.

These are recent examples, but the list is endless. They are fed to us by a media with an agenda and that agenda is not to inform voters or raise the level discourse in today's politics.

So the next time some opinion writer scolds us for not being informed voters, take a hard look in the mirror and do your job!

Jay Allen

Midtown