Shutdown shows need for financial restraint
While my heart goes out to the folks the media continuously describes as experiencing financial hardship due to the government shutdown (living paycheck to paycheck), it illustrates the necessity for financial restraint and responsibility few of us display. Most of the financial gurus accessible on TV and radio offer similar advice:
1. Save at least $1,000. Eventually have 3-6 months income available for emergencies.
2. Cut up your credit cards.
3. Pay cash for everything – except a house. If you want to buy a car and you only have $5,000, you can only buy a $5,000 car.
4. Pay off your debts, starting with the smallest and paying minimum on the others. When the smallest is gone, apply that payment to the next one.
5. Save for retirement.
6. Pay off the house.
7. Give.
Of course it is hard to criticize a nation’s citizens when their government likewise shows no such restraint. Is it possible a $20 trillion-plus national debt will bring us down long before the wall is built or climate change zaps us?
Warren Sharp
Rising Fawn, Georgia
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What did we do to deserve Trump?
What in the world did we do for God to punish us with Donald Trump? In the Jan. 16 Times Free Press, Trump is quoted as saying, “We’re going to stay shut down for a long, long time, if we have to.” Then he emphasized, “We’ll be out for a long time.”
He shows no compassion or sympathy for the 800,000-plus U.S. employees who are not working, or working without pay, because of his decision to shutter federal agencies as some kind of payback to Democrats who refuse to support his idiotic demand to build a medieval border wall. Never mind the harm he is causing to federal workers and their families due to his childish and atrocious behavior.
Trump is a scoundrel with no trace of compassion. He is devoid of humility and decency. Republicans with no backbone cannot bring themselves to do the decent thing due to their inability to stand against this individual who, regrettably, is the president of the U.S. This disgraceful person doesn’t deserve the title of president of the U.S. Our country deserves better; Russia and Putin deserve Trump.
Tom O’Neal, Signal Mountain
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Carbon tax bill perfect solution
I read the Jan. 6 Perspective opinion article discussing France’s rollback of carbon taxes with great interest. While I agree the rollback is a temporary setback for environmentalists, I think it also provides an excellent learning opportunity for our elected officials.
While the carbon tax in France increased costs for consumers without returning any of the revenue to the public, the bills proposed in the House and Senate would evenly distribute the carbon fee revenue back to American families in the form of a dividend. For most lower income and middle-class American families, the dividend would exceed any expenses associated with higher energy costs.
The proposed bipartisan bill is a market-based solution that employs conservative economic principles to reduce regulation and create new jobs. I urge Congressman Fleischmann and Sens. Alexander and Blackburn to join their conservative counterparts in support of the Energy Innovation and Carbon Dividend Act (H.R. 7173 / S. 3791). I hope we can learn from this event and provide a win-win model for the rest of the world that creates jobs, protects our environment for future generations, and puts money back in the pockets of families that most need it.
J.J. Johnson