Astonishing efficiency
Letters to the editor usually include more complaints than applause. This letter will, I hope, improve that balance. Last weekend, I submitted federal and state tax returns for 2022. The Arizona Department of Revenue acknowledged receipt of the state return the following day. Two mornings later, the state refund was already in my bank account. This is truly an example of impressive efficiency. Thank you, AZDOR!
Brenda Beckman
Oro Valley
Inflation Reduction Act
The Inflation Reduction Act of 2022 is a blessing for all Arizona seniors, especially those on a limited income. For example, caps on the monthly cost of insulin at $35 mean that Medicare recipients can finally focus on their well-being instead of focusing on their budget. No one should have to ration food to save money or stay home to save gas so they can afford their medications. No one should have to live or die depending on what a drug manufacturer decides to charge for life-saving prescriptions.
Even more savings are available for seniors on Medicare this year. They can finally get shingles vaccines without breaking the bank. Those with private insurance could receive these vaccines for free, but people on Medicare didn’t have that privilege until now.
Thank you to the hard-working Democrats in D.C. who secured lower drug prices for us. Please continue the hard fight for Arizonans and push for more change!
Diana Alexander
Oro Valley
A third-grader’s point of view
Just beginning his third stint as superintendent of public schools, Tom Horne is hoping to fix schools the way he wants them. If I were a third grader who had just moved to Tucson from another country and had learned everything all third graders should know, but in my own language, not English, I would be worried. Let’s say I was exceptional in X in my own language. Mr. Horne won’t let me use my own language to learn more about X. I must stop learning X so I can learn English, which is tricky and time-consuming, so I fall behind my classmates in X and everything else. I need to feel as if I belong, but we aren’t allowed to talk about our history and culture. I need to regain confidence and connect with classmates, but our teacher can’t help us with social and emotional skills. I wonder if Mr. Horne wants to control learning through discipline, testing, and conforming our character.
Lois Easton
Northeast side
Raising the debt ceiling
Why is it so difficult for Republican politicians to understand that raising the debt ceiling is not like running up your credit card bill? It’s like paying down your credit card bill. But they claim not to know that whenever there is a Democratic administration.
Alan Rubens
Northeast side
Biden visits Ukraine
All Americans should be bursting with pride for President Biden and his administration. They were able to plan and execute travel to a war zone in total secrecy. Behavior so different from the previous administration where the president hid in the basement from a peaceful protest and then couldn’t even keep that a secret.
Louis Stamler
Midtown
Tanks to Ukraine
Re: the Jan. 27 letter “More military equipment for Ukraine.”
Until now, we have been able to stay out of the war by writing checks. Tanks can only be seen by the crazed Russian war monger as a threat to himself and he will escalate as well.
The Doomsday Clock was set a minute closer the other day. They saw this coming? This is getting scary.
Paul Mercer
Oro Valley
Corporate tax break
Republicans seem unaware that they tend to hurt most Arizonans by supporting only the super-rich and arch-conservatives, often one and the same.
Cutting the corporate tax break even further is an example of insanity that has proven to be utterly wrong already many decades ago when President Reagan implemented the notion of the trickle-down economy. As Einstein or someone else once defined insanity, it “is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.”
The flat-tax idea is equally absurd and horrific, badly hurting the weakest in society and supporting the most wealthy. Moreover, the Republicans want to cut Social Security and Medicare as if there were no tomorrow, rushing toward the abyss with an eagerness that is suicidal. No wonder even Arizonans are waking up and casting their votes increasingly for other parties. The Republicans like to wrap themselves in the American flag, but they tend to be really unpatriotic and vicious hurting the majority. OK, be conservative, but be good Americans!
Albrecht Classen
Midtown
School questions
The fragmented educational system in Arizona is shameful.
Since tax dollars are being given through vouchers to religious schools, home schooling, private and for-profit schools, do they have to follow the same rules and regulations and requirements as public schools? There are all kinds of monitoring, and instructional stipulations put upon public schools and its teachers but what about other kinds of schools?
As a taxpayer, I would want to know what they are teaching, and that they are made to follow the same rules. What if they practice policies that promote bigoted, non-inclusive, and intolerant ideas? Are we just handing out money to these schools with no accountability? What kind of excellence is that? Are their teachers required to be educated with college degrees and licensed/accredited? Can they be exclusive in who they accept? What about lower-income students? I would like to have these questions answered.
Rozanne Plotnik
Green Valley
President Biden’s trip to Ukraine
This is a letter to all the “Biden” doubters. Hey you guys, check out Joe! How about flying to Ukraine, very long flight, then a 10-hour train ride to Kiev. Wonderful, uniting speech. Guess what, doubters? the world saw a decent moral man, getting it done! Not an “old man” over 80. No younger person could have shown the president’s strength and the United States’ power better than Joe!
Mary Bradley
Northeast side
