Thankful for Sinema
In contrast to many of your letters, I want to thank Sen. Kyrsten Sinema, whom I did not vote for. She and Sen. Joe Manchin are standing up for many of us who are not taken in by the $3.5 trillion boondoggle the progressives are trying to push through.
Our President says the cost of it is zero, because only the rich will be paying for it. Now as a retired teacher, I certainly don’t fall into that category, but I can’t figure out how the math works this out. If taxing the rich and corporations will bring in billions of dollars, who pays for the trillions? I learned from my father that there is no such thing as a free lunch, and every year I taught my students the same thing.
Who pays the farmers, dairy men, cafeteria workers, etc.? They don’t provide their work for free. Someone has to pay, and in this current case it won’t be just the billionaires.
Barbara Toohey
Foothills
The selfie senator
Arizona has sent such consequential people to Congress as Mo Udall, Barry Goldwater, Carl Hayden and John McCain. But now we have Sen. Kyrsten Sinema, the selfie senator, who disdains even the minimal accountability of stating where she stands, and why, on urgent issues including investment in infrastructure and jobs, addressing climate change, and protecting our right to vote.
She left Washington this week, in the middle of critical negotiations with the White House, to hobnob with corporate donors in Phoenix. One of her “insiders” was quoted in the New York Times saying: “When she leaves in the middle of something and says, ‘I got stuff to do,’ it’s because she has plans. Sometimes, she’s just more interested in training for an Ironman.”
We need someone who understands the gravity of our national situation and pays attention to her job of promoting the public welfare and representing Arizonans.
Jeff Anderson Foothills
Voting in Congress
What I see in the media indicates that most voters are in favor of passing the improvements contained in the two spending bills currently under consideration in Congress. This causes me to wonder the following:
1. Do Sens. Kyrsten Sinema and Joe Manchin know that they are in the Congress to represent the will of their constituents?
2. All of the blame for these bills not passing is unfairly being placed with these two Democrats. Are there not two or more Republicans who are willing to set aside partisan politics and carry out the will of their constituents?
3. Do all of these politicians not realize that we must vote them out of office if they will not carry out the measures for which we elected them?
Election days are coming.
Cary Fishman
East side
Pastors, protect your parishioners
Pastors, please protect your parishioners during this pandemic. As an ordained minister, public health advocate, and a Ph.D. student at the University of Arizona Mel and Enid Zuckerman College of Public Health, I am appalled by the misinformation being spouted from pulpits and the lack of best practices being implemented to protect parishioners from SARS-CoV-2 (COVID-19) in the Tucson community.
The evidence is clear. COVID-19 vaccines are both safe and effective. According to the Arizona Department of Health Services, over 3 million have been fully vaccinated in Arizona. Moderna, Pfizer and Johnson & Johnson vaccines can protect against hospitalization and death. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has provided guidelines for religious organizations that are evidence-based. Those guidelines include proper mask wearing during religious services. Let’s do everything within our power to protect our parishioners during this pandemic.
Jonathan Smith
Southwest side
Homeless
I heard about the Better Buck program that Flagstaff has adopted and Sierra Vista is now doing. It provides “paper money” that the community may purchase and hand out to our homeless community. Many of us are reluctant to hand out real money as we do not know what will be purchased. With Better Bucks one cannot purchase tobacco or alcohol but are able to purchase food, toiletries, etc., at various local businesses. I would love to see this available in our generous community.
Mary Schneider
East side
Government spending
Re: the Oct. 2 letter “Government spending.”
Although the author is frightened by government spending, it is actually a good thing, to the extent that it stimulates the economy and doesn’t produce unwanted inflation. If you’re interested in detrimental effects on the economy, a much better indicator is debt.
Here is where the Democrats and Republicans differ. Democrats believe in paying for expenditures by taxing the wealthy to produce little or no debt. Republicans like to borrow money to pay for spending, likely producing an increase in debt.
In summary, don’t worry about the amount of spending on the Build Back Better legislation. If the cost is offset by taxes on the rich, and the predicted stimulation of the economy occurs, we will have laid the groundwork for a prosperous 21st century.
Robert Mann
Northwest side
Housing issues put pets at risk
I am a former director of the Pima Animal Care Center. As the eviction moratorium deadline has come and gone, our country now faces an animal welfare crisis: millions of pets are at risk of losing their homes and entering shelters. It highlights a broader, ongoing issue: housing discrimination that leads to animals entering shelters in the first place.
Throughout Arizona, there is a significant lack of pet-accessible, affordable housing. Asking people to choose between safe housing and keeping their beloved pet is not acceptable.
Further, the existence of traditional, government-funded animal shelters enables the rental and insurance industries to refuse to allow pets or impose such highly restrictive policies and fees that pet ownership becomes impossible.
Taxpayers should not be subsidizing housing discrimination, but that’s exactly what’s happening when the landlord tells the tenant to ‘get rid of their pet.’ We need to end this bad practice and transform animal shelters into human animal support services to keep pets in their homes.
Kristen Hassen
Downtown
