Heading for $100 loaf of bread?
Hey, Dems! It's another "crisis"! Let's spend another $1.9 trillion we don't have to help all of our voters - including the ones we let in under Biden's immigration rules! It's just another log on the fire of $28 trillion in debt. Just pray interest rates don't spike up!
Oops, well 0.5% to 1.6% on a 10-year note isn't so bad so far. That just adds $308 billion per year in interest on the debt. Hey, taxpayers! Guess what? We're back! And we want more!
Twenty-eight trillion in national debt equates to every person in the U.S. (350 million men, women, and children) owing a debt of $80,000 to people who hold U.S. bonds. Family of five? You owe $400,000 in federal debt, plus interest, plus another $68,570 every year in taxes to cover the $4.8 trillion federal budget.
Haven't got that much? That's OK, we'll just print more money until the dollar is dang near worthless. Maybe the next pandemic or depression will fix things. $100 for a loaf of bread? Ah, just grow your own wheat.
D.J. Odom
Cleveland, Tennessee
Candidates: Pledge to take care of our assets
The areas along the roadsides of Scenic Highway, Ochs Highway, Cummings Highway and Old Wauhatchie Pike have long been neglected in the regular maintenance by Chattanooga Public Works. Even with repeated, orchestrated efforts of concerned citizens contacting 311, the regular maintenance for rights of way for these roads has not been done with any regularity.
TDOT pays the city of Chattanooga to maintain the rights of way along these roads (within the city limits), but the efforts of the current administration have been half-hearted.
The safety of the motoring public, as well as the longevity of the road system itself, is in jeopardy. Ditches are full of leaves, trees and boulders; overgrowth from the side of the road encroaches into the path of vehicles and causes large buses to cross the line to avoid junk piles.
Lookout Mountain and its long-established tourist attractions have been the literal backbone of the tourist industry in the Scenic City. The garbage and debris are a horrible scene to present to our visitors.
I challenge both mayoral runoff candidates and any other elected officials to tour these roadways and see the state of disarray. Sir, ma'am, what will you do to fix these issues?
Carter Parham, Lookout Mountain, Tennessee
Vote against state no-permit carry bill
I can't believe our local state legislators are behind the dangerous bills SB 765 and HB 786. These bills will allow people to carry a loaded firearm anywhere, openly or concealed, without a permit or safety training. We need a license to drive, a license to fish. Permitless carry lowers the bar for who may carry loaded handguns in public and would dismantle Tennessee's permit system, which promotes responsible gun ownership.
Gun violence in Hamilton County and across the state is rising. Our state law enforcement agencies, including the Tennessee Sheriffs' Association, the Association of Chiefs of Police, and the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation, are against these bills and have been chided by legislators, who appear to care more about the gun lobby than the safety of our citizens.
In an average year, 1,193 people die by guns in Tennessee. With a rate of 17.5 deaths per 100,000 people, Tennessee has the 12th highest rate of gun deaths in the U.S. Nationally, 38,826 people die by guns each year.
Please call your legislators; ask them to vote against these dangerous bills.
You can also text TN to 644-33 to get connected.
Judy Gallagher
East Ridge
Crucifying America on insanity cross
The progressive left in this country is possessed by the false perception of racism. They think they find racism everywhere, even in Dr. Seuss books and statues of Founding Fathers and leaders like Abraham Lincoln. This country has worked more than a century to break the bonds of slavery and eradicate racism. It has done an exceptionally good job and is a highly inclusive society. The progressive reach for perfection is due for failure. If society has room to improve, it will do so in the natural way, as the hearts of people seek better for themselves.
In light of the progressive urge to eradicate imperfection overnight (with the destruction of civilization as we know it), Americans will vehemently resist any attempts at forcing change that will eradicate their cherished values and history. Within every individual is the potential for change based on an increasing will to strive for fairness and equality. This process is not to be shoved down the throats of the American people. It is the overarching objective of the extremist progressives to arrange American society into one of communism/socialism, which would be to crucify America on the cross of social insanity.
Bob Jack
Harrison
Why doesn't he hear the people now?
U.S. Rep. Chuck Fleischmann and other House Republicans need to explain why they supported President's Trump's two COVID relief bills for a total of $4.5 trillion, yet not a single Republican voted for President Biden's $1.9 trillion COVID relief bill. President Trump's bills passed with overwhelming bipartisan support, with nearly unanimous House support for the second relief bill.
Rep. Fleischmann felt the people's pain in December 2020 when explaining why he was voting for the COVID relief bill: "People are hurting. I hear and sense that. I will vote accordingly to help our people." Even though we never see Rep Fleischmann except when he dons his hard hat for a photo-op at the Chickamauga Dam lock, I would like to think he is aware that people are still hurting.
Democrats were able to cross party lines and vote in favor of two COVID relief bills, yet Republicans are proving what obstructionists they really are.
Rebecca Rochat
Voluntary gun safety training proposed
Gov. Lee: Thank you for your support of constitutional carry of firearms in Tennessee. I am a lifetime NRA member and believe some safety/legal training should be encouraged. So I propose:
Voluntarily: Go online or to a gun sales business, give your Tennessee driver's license/state ID number and pass a basic, short (10-minute) gun safety test / Tennessee law. There will be study guides to help prepare. You would then print out a numbered receipt to exempt you from Tennessee sales tax on any gun, ammunition or magazine you purchase for five years. This is only voluntary, not required.
Bill Bastenbeck
Dayton, Tennessee
Cartoonist off on impeachment
Two recent Free Press Chip Bok editorial cartoons grossly mislead readers by misrepresenting the power of the House of Representatives to impeach or accuse a federal officeholder, and the Senate's power to try impeachments.
The Feb. 10 cartoon implies that just about anybody can be impeached by House Democrats, even the 74 million who voted for Trump. Not true. Trump was a federal officeholder when he was impeached; they weren't. The Constitution does not address when a trial would be held. Trump's impeachment trial was constitutional.
Bok's Feb. 13 cartoon has an angry crowd holding signs that read "Impeach" various figures from the past - Nixon, Truman, Earl Warren and the like. All these figures and others Bok might have added are not only no longer in office; they're all long dead. Impeachment is a means to discipline federal officeholders while they are in office. In Trump's case, he was impeached in his last few days in office and was tried as soon as possible. For being so adamant about defending the Constitution, you'd think some of these Trump supporters would know more about it.
Grady S. Burgner
Ooltewah