Letters to the Editor (Dec. 6)

Democrats erred on tax plan

Has the national Democratic Party committed an unforced error by not allowing a single yes vote on the Republican tax reform plan? I think so, and here’s why.

The Republican Party holds a very narrow majority in the U.S. Senate, so if the Democratic Party has any chance of taking the Senate back in 2018, they need every member they now have, and three additional seats. With the controversial Alabama senatorial election now going on, the odds were in favor of the Democrats, especially since President Trump was on the fence in regard to supporting Republican Roy Moore.

With the failure to get even one Democratic vote on his tax plan, Trump has decided to play hard ball and will now back Moore. I doubt Trump would have backed Moore otherwise.

Not good strategy on the part of the Democrats. But come to think of it, when has either political party exhibited good sense recently?

Do like Ike did

The Eisenhower Memorial is approved and our state politicians are using it as a chance to praise Eisenhower for his great leadership. However, they have not learned the lessons from Eisenhower’s leadership.

Eisenhower was a great general and president because he realized that it required ample resources to get the job done. Under Eisenhower, the top tax rate was 90 percent. Eisenhower used the money to pay our war debts, rebuild Europe, educate returning GIs, and build the national highway system which ensured economic growth for decades to come.

Our current Republican tax plan will add $1.5 trillion to the national debt and will not provide the resources needed to take care of the needs of our country and build for the future. Kansas tried a similar plan and it failed our state’s citizens, miserably. It is being sold as a tax cut for the middle class, when most of the benefits go to those already wealthy.

We certainly do not need a 90-percent tax rate, but what we have now is already too low. Cutting taxes further will lead to economic stagnation and an increased national debt, both things which should be repugnant to Republicans.

Bicyclists have their reasons

Motorists complain that bicyclists regularly ignore traffic laws. I’ve logged 1,700 miles this year, 2,500 miles in 2016, all in town on bike paths, lanes and city streets – busy and not so.

In traffic, it’s not uncommon for me to violate a traffic law so that I will not be forced to ride in traffic which is largely comprised of individuals who are driving while distracted or ignorant of basic rules of the road, such as yielding to bicyclists and pedestrians. These traffic violations are life preserving from the perspective of this urban cyclist.

The jobs aren’t coming back

Tax cuts that are being proposed will cause the same effect in the nation that Gov. Brownback’s experiment caused in Kansas. Our Kansas congressional delegation voted for these cuts, knowing full well what they did to Kansas and that they will do the same to the nation. We had to steal money from highway construction retirement funds for state employees to try to make up for the loss.

They will not bring jobs back. The idea that tax cuts will bring those jobs back is an insult to people’s intelligence. This is a gift to the Republican donors so they will give more money for re-election of these people. That’s why there is such a hurry to pass it so that they can have the money for the re-election campaign in early 2018.

When the growth fails, they will start cutting the safety net education and anything else you and I need, because we are not big donors.

This story was originally published December 6, 2017 at 5:23 AM with the headline "Letters to the Editor (Dec. 6)."