LETTERS: ‘As a grandma, I don’t want to pack heat’ to go places

SHARE LETTERS: ‘As a grandma, I don’t want to pack heat’ to go places
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The Texas church massacre has been seized by both sides in the gun debate to reaffirm where they stand. | AP Photo

After another bloody massacre, the message to the American people from Trump and the GOP is arm ourselves. Innocent church goers, beautiful children were murdered by a violent, mentally ill man who was able to buy his military weaponry legally and used it.

As a grandma, I don’t want to pack heat when I drop off my four-year-old granddaughter at preschool. When I take her shopping or to the movies, I don’t want to carry an assault rifle for protection because gun owners are not properly vetted, military weapons are legal, and gun sellers are unlicensed.

Where is my right to not have to own a firearm to survive? Where is my granddaughter’s right to safety and to the pursuit of happiness? Every children in America has a right to grow up.

Arlene Salamendra, Plano

SEND LETTERS TO: letters@suntimes.com. Please include your neighborhood or hometown and a phone number for verification purposes.

A bad tax deal for America

The Republican tax reform bill is simply a travesty. It will do the very opposite of what its supporters say it will do. For starters, the bill will add about $1.7 trillion to our national deficit over the next 10 years and nearly $5 trillion over the next two decades. It hands over $700 billion to foreign companies with no strings attached. It rewards and hence encourages offshoring of American jobs by multinational corporations. And, fully 80% of its benefits goes to elite American individuals earning more than $700,000 per year.

By eliminating the alternative minimum and estate taxes (payable by only 0.2% of super-rich Americans having estates valued at more than $5.5 million), billionaires like President Trump and some members of his family stand to gain while the tax burden is shifted to the middle class.

By cutting Medicaid by $1 trillion and Medicare by nearly $500 billion, it will lead to the death of countless Americans. This tax “reform” is bad for our country and economy.

Lanlan Hoo, Wheaton

Watch out for tax deal ‘hoax’

Criticisms of the Republicans’ intended tax code changes continue to multiply despite promising more money to be left in people’s pockets and claims that lower taxes on corporations will miraculously result in job creation.

Numbers crunchers shall continue to reveal the inherent false claims for it, but two anecdotes already reveal it for the scam it really is: A minor one is the aim to end the tax deduction incentive to buy electric cars that is helping the transportation industry switch us to far less-polluting mobility. Manufacturers warn this means a 25 percent drop in electric car sales, which in turn threatens to shed workers, not hire more. It also belies President Trump’s promises to create jobs, not kill them.

Secondly, the Republican mantra that lower corporate taxes delivers job creation is a lure and a hoax. Since the economic recovery, corporations are rolling in profits, yet the flood of new manufacturing jobs does not materialize. Instead, corporations buy more job-killing automation, while the rest becomes stock buy-backs or dividends, plus ever-higher salaries for CEOs, already obscenely high; not increased hiring. This new multi-trillion-dollar tax gift to corporations won’t change their payroll-shrinking habits.

Already some are accused of dodging taxes owed overseas governments as well. The actual tax rate corporations pay is markedly lower than the nominal tax rate quoted, yet for effect corporations continue to whine about taxes, while they buy up smaller companies or merge with competitors instead of investing in new enterprises from scratch, or expanding here at home. Without the promised additional jobs yielding trillions in new personal income taxes, the resulting tax gap burden shall ultimately fall on the middle-class like always, while millionaires get off easy. Similar deceptions lurk elsewhere in this bill.

Having failed to deliver on any of their platform promises despite controlling the House, Senate and White House, the Republicans are desperate to claim a legislative victory this year even if it’s a stinker. Tell them “No!” while there’s still time to prevent this rip-off.

Ted Z. Manuel, Hyde Park


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