A personal note to [cartoonist Jimmy] Margulies: Your Dec. 28 (Chattanooga Times editorial page, page B6) political satire of evangelicals did not go unnoticed, but that is OK.
Since there are only about 60 million evangelicals, feel free to attack them along with Christians in general. President Trump will appreciate your contribution to his election.
George Gray, Dayton, Tennessee
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Loyalty owed not to GOP or McConnell
A few things bother me about Trump's impeachment.
First, Republicans complain how House Democrats ran a kangaroo court, criticized witnesses, etc. Yet I never heard them strongly defend Trump.
Second, I heard no Republicans take Trump to task for stonewalling. Don't they want to know what Pompeo, Giuliani, Bolton and Mulvaney have to say? I do. Then Mitch McConnell coordinating with the White House. Really? The founders clearly had situations like this in mind when they created three equal branches of government as a system of checks and balance.
I implore Reps. Fleischmann and Des Jarlais and Sens. Blackburn and Alexander to remember they took an oath to the Constitution - not the Republican Party (or McConnell). The system can't work if a party's only concern is defending its own turf.
In my naivete when Trump was elected, I had hopes the Republican Congress would keep Trump in check. Does anyone doubt they would be falling all over themselves to remove a Democrat who had done what Trump has done? Howard Baker, where are you?
For the record, I'm an independent who voted for Corker and Alexander. It will be a while before I vote Republican again.
Nancy Bishop, Birchwood
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Why has replacement lock taken so long?
The Panama Canal was completed after the U.S. took over in 10 years, Hoover Dam in five years, the Empire State Building in just over a year and the Golden Gate Bridge in four years.
Closer to home, the Chickamauga Dam only took four years. But in this mechanized, computerized and profit-motivated time, work on the replacement lock has taken more than 10 years and is nowhere near complete.
On the other side of town, work on Highway 27 has been going on since 2015, and all we have are barricades and unfinished roads. Now the contractor is asking for another two years and millions of dollars to complete what should be already complete.
At the rate they are going, barge and vehicle traffic may be obsolete by the time these projects are completed. As to the TDOT contractor, it bid on this project and knew what the requirements were. But it also knew if it requested an extension and more money, it would be granted. But what should happen is [the contractor should] pay the penalties.
It's not the fault of Tennesseans the contractor cannot plan properly and meet the required completion date.
Cal Lamb, Red Bank
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We deserve all of Sanders' 'ponies'
A recent conservative political cartoon in the TFP depicted Bernie Sanders as Santa Claus, promising a "big, fat government-funded pony" to Americans. Cute cartoon. But utter nonsense.
The "ponies" Sanders is proposing are: Medicare for all, free college education, a decent living wage, the rebuilding of our obsolescent, crumbling infrastructure, getting corporate money out of politics, and swift, bold action on climate change.
To the conservative (always defending the status quo) and the super-rich, insulated in their financial security bubbles, those things might seem like ponies, but to at least 60% of the population they'd be lifelines. They'd also be solid investments in America's future.
Funny how plutocrats always rail against "big government," at least when it endeavors to work for the commonwealth. But when it comes to handouts and bailouts for themselves, they love it.
Bigger tax breaks for the rich, corporate welfare, health care demeaned as a business commodity, trillions of dollars for endless wars - now, those are ponies! Gilded ponies. And they're not just promised but given to those whose wealth was ostentatious to begin with. Picture that as a cartoon. It's a sick joke on what passes for "democracy" in America.
Rick Armstrong, Monteagle
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2020 election only vote that counts
Your "Impeachment Is New Trump Legacy" editorial is very sad to read for those of us who think President Trump is not guilty of anything, as proven by the biased vote by House Democrats. Our Founding Fathers strongly believed impeachment should only be nonpartisan. [House Speaker] Nancy Pelosi holding up for fairness is laughable. She and Shifty Schiff created rules totally partisan for the Dems in the House hearings. I agree with you - let the decision be made by the voters in the 2020 election. That is the only vote that matters.
Bob Nash
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Vouchers, Nippon is apples, oranges
In Pam Sohn's editorial (Dec. 16), she compared the Beacon Center's criticism of the use of public largess to assist a wealthy foreign-owned company to locate a plant in a former residential area of Chattanooga with my support of education vouchers to allow school choice for students attending failing schools. It is quite a stretch to compare the two but very much in keeping with the hyperbole employed by voucher opponents.
In the case of when they are using our taxes to subsidize corporate relocations, government entities arbitrarily pick winners and losers. There were excellent arguments that the highest and best use of the former Harriet Tubman site was not an industrial plant but for affordable workforce housing or other market-driven purposes. When expenses are totaled, each job at Nippon Paint, at the highest estimated employment, has a $71,000 price tag.
For Ms. Sohn to compare paying a global giant $10.5 million to locate in the center of the North American automobile industry to allowing economically deprived children the opportunity to escape failing public schools in Davidson and Shelby counties, it takes an industrial-sized level of disingenuousness.
Fred Decosimo