Proof that democracy works
After a long and contentious process, the Senate passed the Inflation Reduction Act. In addition to limiting costs for some prescription drugs and ensuring that billion-dollar corporations pay at least 15% income taxes, the act provides incentives, mostly via tax credits and rebates, to the pockets of homeowners who opt for energy-efficient choices, replacing fossil-fuel furnaces, boilers, water heaters and stoves with high-efficiency electric options that can be powered by renewable energy. Sen. Kyrsten Sinema made sure the act provided funds to Arizona to address the ongoing drought. All of this and more done while reducing the deficit by billions. We have proof once again that democracy, while often slow and frustrating, works. Thank you, Sens. Mark Kelly and Sinema, for your support of this legislation and thank you President Joe Biden for your leadership. You have this Arizonan’s deeply felt gratitude.
People are also reading…
Mike Carran
Oro Valley
Dems not socialists or communists
Re: the Aug. 3 article “Festival of democracy gone these days.”
I can’t stop thinking about the couple Tim Steller spoke to at the polls, who are terrified of Democrats, as they will steer the country toward socialism and communism. I’m about their age (old!) and wonder where they hear this crap? I’m a Democrat and yes, I want public schools, Social Security, affordable — even free — health care, gun safety, choice for women, etc.
I bet this couple want many of these same things. These issues are nothing new, nothing to fear. I’m asking that they do some serious research, as Democrats beginning with President Joe Biden are the same Democrats we’ve always been. Donald Trump buddies up to autocratic leaders worldwide who are by nature anti-democracy. Today he avoids anything Putin, but not long ago it was quite different. Our old GOP was also quite different, they weren’t fearmongers. We had different views, different solutions, but mutual respect. The couple said their 2020 vote didn’t count, that’s hard to believe. It makes me sad.
Ginia Desmond
Downtown
Where’s election coverage?
Re: the Aug. 3 article “Festival of democracy gone these days.”
Paraphrasing Tim Steller’s column: Remember when the day after Election Day really felt like a festival of the free press? There was a buzz of excitement at the front door as we retrieved the newspaper.
There was a feeling that, win or lose, we would find the election results and see them as something important and affirming together.
The days of the festival of the free press are over.
And it isn’t just early deadlines that sapped the excitement.
It’s the deep suspicion, fear and rage that the Arizona Daily Star has surrendered its free press responsibility.
While the emphasis here is on “press,” the Star failed to provide timely results online, too. At mid-morning Wednesday, on tucson.com the story on the Republican governor’s race wrongly said which candidate led.
Shraddha Hilda Oropeza
West side
Busing migrants to D.C.
Now that Gov. Doug Ducey is compounding the misery of migrants by busing them 2,500 miles to Washington D.C., so they can be dumped on the streets, wouldn’t it be wonderful if those folks could be helped in ways that celebrate their humanity and their desire to contribute? Let’s put people to work to beautify our capital and add to our homeland instead of degrading both them and D.C. It would show the world the true nature of America while instructing our governor as to the true nature of leadership.
If you agree with me, please pass this message along. Say it loud again and again. Let’s show everyone what the true American dream looks like.
Scott McKinzie
Northeast side
Yuma border wall completion
The Biden administration has approved fill-ins of border wall gaps at Yuma, where about 27,000 people each month have been entering illegally for months. A 200% increase over fiscal year 2020. Border Patrol agents have been overrun, complaining that they have not been able to do border security, but rather are acting as a shuttle service transporting processed migrants from the border to third-party migrant services.
Last December, the mayor of Yuma declared a local emergency because Yuma was being inundated with migrants. Remember it was Biden who pledged not to build “another foot” of the border wall. The Arizona Daily Star’s own Curt Prendergast, now the Opinion editor, did almost weekly articles attacking the border wall in Arizona.
I think it was Trump’s building of many miles of border wall in Arizona that has kept us from mirroring Texas where over 1 million people have already illegally entered the country this fiscal year.
They have minimal border wall there. Is it coincidental that Mark Kelly is up for reelection?
Alan Jeffords
Midtown
A little common sense
There are two things that I don’t understand about “blue-collar Republicans.” The first is why they are Republicans.
I think the Republican Party is dead set at destroying you financially. Their focus is on the betterment of corporations and the rich. Have you no logic? Second is gun rights. I am a Democrat, but I have a 12-gauge, a .270, and a Glock among others. These seem to cover all my needs present and future.
They do not represent my manhood. I have no more affection for my Glock than I have for my toaster. No member of the Democratic Party has any intentions of taking these from me. Having an AR-15 style long gun is a fine machine and can be fun to own. You can use it for target practice and making a bunch of noise. Other than that, it is pretty useless. Think about how much you actually use yours and the money you have tied up in it.
James Galvin
Sahuarita
Cult of lies
The Republican primaries proved that if you tell big lies people will believe them. To win, GOP candidates pushed “Big Lies” about the 2020 elections, burnished with insurrection and white nationalism. Real policy issues and honest debate were absent. Just baseless, obvious lies.
Winning candidates debased themselves with abject, sniveling fealty to a pathological liar and con-artist-in-chief. It seems lies are the ticket to success in the Republican Party. Don’t like election results or data about climate change or COVID-19? Just lie about it and you’re on your way. The GOP has been on this path for years, stoked by hate-jockeys and conspiracy theorists on radio and TV.
Honest election officials are threatened and Republican candidates who know and tell the truth are defeated while Supreme Court candidates lie under oath to win approval. The GOP is neither grand nor a party. It is a cult based on lies. If you are a GOPer that didn’t drink the orange Kool- Aid, then resurrect your party!
Vance Holliday
Foothills
Closure of Green Valley Hospital
Re: the Aug. 7 article “Employees of closed hospital left without pay.”
The story of hospital workers laid off without receiving what they are owed is disgraceful. The creation of the hospital in its ill-chosen location is another dubious tale. Funding was provided by affluent foreign “investors” who in return received green cards, essentially enabling them to buy American citizenship. As a former hospital employee is quoted in the article, “There needs to be a government investigation of the whole thing.”
There are several problems here: the immigration issue, equitable delivery of health care, bankruptcy laws allowing investors and corporate administrators to take profits and then defraud their workers (hospital employees, coal miners, construction workers, whoever).
These are only a few of the problems in our dear country that need to be addressed. It will take a long time — if ever. Meanwhile, I hope our local elected representatives at all levels will ensure that the former employees of the Green Valley Hospital get promptly what is owed them.
Margaret Goonan
Midtown
Supreme Court is wrong
To me, there are two facts that the Supreme Court ignored in their ruling. Fact 1: No matter what you call the life inside of the womb, it is unborn. Hence it has no rights, it is inside of another body — the mother with all the rights. Fact 2: No man can have a baby, therefore no man can have an abortion. All men have no opinion! All men must recuse themselves from any decision involving only women’s rights! These are simple facts that can’t be disputed.
Larry Cory
West side
Star’s nonendorsement
Last week, Arizona Republican primary voters nominated four election deniers as candidates for the state’s top offices. Yet, in these races, the voice of the Arizona Daily Star remained silent, in line with the newspaper’s new policy of not endorsing candidates. The stakes in the state’s elections are too high now — it is no longer a question of liberals vs. conservatives, of left vs. right, but of the future of democracy itself. It is the civic responsibility of the Star to make its voice heard. I am hopeful that the Star will reconsider its “experiment” of nonendorsement of political candidates before this November’s election. You owe it to the community you serve.
Neil Miller
West side
Regulating home investing
A major problem exists both in our state and across our great nation: investors and investment companies, such as Blackstone, are buying up single-family homes, which would otherwise be available for ordinary families looking to start their lives, and converting them into rental properties. This is creating a neo-feudal situation, and is also contributing to skyrocketing home valuations (far beyond their fair market value) through artificial scarcity, thereby creating a massive and unsustainable asset bubble. We need legislation to stop speculative home investing, and foster an economic environment where everyday Americans have access to home ownership. How can we call this a free and sustainable market? Homes should first and foremost be treated as places to live, with any equity appreciation over time being an added bonus. Will we allow greed to kill the American dream?
Conner McKee
Marana
Germany 1930, America 2030?
Maybe? Frightening to consider the parallels. If fascist-leaning, election-doubting candidates keep getting nominated and, possibly, elected we are on our way. An elephant on an armband doesn’t seem right. Wonder what they’ll come up with? Bye, Bye, American Pie. Let it not come to pass.
Dennis Winsten
Northeast side
