Our representatives should hear from us
We are being told that things are just fine. Are we living in the midst of a delusion? What is it that I am missing? Groceries are up. Eating out requires serious thought. Vital health programs are under attack. Rentals have gone through the roof. On and on.
The Trump administration has delivered chaos, confusion and increased costs to our everyday lives. The implementation of tariffs defies logic or understanding. We don’t see an ending to strife.
I have a suggestion. Let’s demonstrate. We must make our voices heard until it’s time to vote. Marsha Blackburn, Bill Hagerty and Chuck Fleischmann do not represent us or our critical needs. Call and write them. Make sure they hear you. We can no longer wait for things to get better on their own.
Irv Ginsburg
Trump disasters one after another
Trump loves air-polluting, global-warming coal. But, utility bills in coal-heavy West Virginia, which produces the fifth-most U.S. energy, have climbed almost twice the national average. Coal is more expensive than natural gas or renewables. Yet Trump’s Energy Department wants to spend $625 million upgrading coal plants and open more land to coal mining while cutting aid to renewables.
South Georgia counties are losing population, mostly for lack of economic development. Historically, the loss has gone hand-in-hand with the closings of rural hospitals. In some counties, the hospitals were the biggest industry and major source of jobs for the educated. In Georgia, hospital revenue loss could be as much as $3.7 billion if ACA subsidies expire, along with Florida and Texas, Republicans’ other big “takers” from the federal government.
Georgia’s Medicaid work requirement didn’t improve employment, proving what Republicans say about Medicaid recipients a lie. The federal Government Accountability Office reported that the Peach State spent $54.2 million on administrative costs to monitor the work requirement program, which was twice what was spent on actual health care. This is Republican capitalism.
David Bean
Chatsworth, Georgia
Tell the whole story on traffic cameras
In the TFP article in Sunday’s paper on traffic cameras, you failed to mention that in both Tennessee and Georgia, photo enforcement citations are civil violations and not criminal misdemeanors. Therefore, they do not go against your driving record in either state. Failure to pay the fines in Georgia only results in the issuing municipality turning you to a credit bureau. Moreover, when we had these in Dalton 15 years ago, people started taking alternate routes to avoid them. This so reduced the revenue that the city was forced to cancel the contract with the camera company and take them down.
You need to give all pertinent information when you are doing a story.
Charles Hyder
Dalton, Georgia