Toxic cocktail on tap
Gov. Asa Hutchinson plans a $50 million individual income-tax cut, a recent story said, "in order to continue the momentum to cut income tax rates in the future." House Speaker Jeremy Gillam suggests "holding up and maybe not" cutting any taxes in the new session.
Meanwhile, Hutchinson has already accomplished removing 25,000 people from the supplemental food programs (SNAP) and now proposes to lower Medicaid eligibility from $16,394 to $11,880 for an individual and from $33,534 for a family of four to $24,300.
Jason Rapert was able to hold the last session on health care hostage because he found a loophole in Medicaid that allowed removal of the lowest 17 percent of women on Medicaid from receiving a standard form of contraception. Hutchinson needed one more vote, and Rapert gave it to him.
Toxic cocktail for many Arkansans: hungry, sick, and lack of adequate or no access to birth control.
KARIS ALDERSON
Hot Springs Village
Ideological insularity
Mr. Gitz's "Birds of a feather" column cites statistical analysis of voting patterns showing that urbanized regions, and in particular regions containing major universities, were concentrated centers of what he labels "leftward" or "liberal" voters and decries that as evidence of "ideological insularity," conformity, and lack of diversity in areas with strong academic influence.
As usual, Mr. Gitz only displays his own ideological insularity and illogic. Mr. Trump himself implied the obvious when he proclaimed his love for the uneducated--essentially admitting that his demagogic appeal based on fear, untruths, and inflammatory rhetoric against the "other" has its greatest appeal among those most lacking in the basic knowledge and skills to distinguish fact from fiction, and to those who have the least exposure to and understanding of those from other cultural backgrounds.
It should be no surprise that the Trump approach failed miserably around centers dedicated to learning and to teaching discernment between fact and opinion. The only surprise should be that Trump still got almost 10 percent in such areas, yet Mr. Gitz himself is proof that even higher education is an imperfect process.
By any rational comparison, the large urban areas and large universities are demonstrably more ethnically and culturally diverse than the more rural counties and rural states that voted for Trump, which makes Mr. Gitz's conclusions ridiculous. He has unwittingly suggested a good case for the opposite conclusion--that there is a disturbing ideological insularity and lack of diversity in the rural regions that voted strongly for Mr. Trump.
It appears as if the Republican penchant for cutting tax revenues and then using that as an excuse for underfunding public education may be based on an implicit assumption that less-educated and less-informed rubes are easier to influence and fool into voting Republican.
JOEL C. EWING
Bentonville
Thoughts on football
Been watching a lot of football during bowl week. Looks like to me cutting the roster to 50 players would save a lot of money for all the schools that have football. The top 50 are all that get to play; the rest, dead net loss.
Also, did you see the fans at most stadiums? Very sparse. Let's take a long, hard look at that. Why have a game with no one there?
RON DUNTON
Horseshoe Bend
Foundation character
Karl Hansen recently asserted his ability to read the motives of two of our elected officials, Gov. Asa Hutchinson and Sen. Jason Rapert. It seems their support of placing the Ten Commandments on the Capitol lawn is solely due to their desire to push their "fundamentalist" religion on Arkansans. He poses questions he believes demolish the notion that America's laws have anything to do with the Ten Commandments.
Mr. Hansen seems unfamiliar with the American political and religious climate of the last half of the 18th century. I would recommend he read The Christian Life and Character of the Civil Institutions of the United States by Benjamin F. Morris. This work was originally published in 1864 and recently republished in 2007 by American Vision Inc. I would also recommend George Washington's Sacred Fire by Peter A. Lillback, published in 2006 by Providence Forum. These two works show that the Bible was foundational to the formation of America and its laws.
I believe the founding fathers would have no problem with placing the Ten Commandments on the Capitol grounds since they promote morality. As George Washington said, "Religion and morality are the essential pillars of a civil society." John Adams also said, "Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people." Never has true Christianity condoned mistreatment of Native Americans, or the practice of slavery, or racial discrimination, or torture. Sadly, some have misused the Bible for such purposes.
LARRY M. FISHER
Beebe
The nickname for him
I did not know what to call him. During the presidential campaign, he gave everyone demeaning nicknames like Crooked Hillary and Little Marco. So I wish to return the favor. In my personal conversations, I simply call him The Liar. This man ran the most dishonest, divisive campaign I have witnessed in my 67 years on earth. He will not be my president.
Hillary was a flawed candidate, to be sure. Watching and listening to her, I thought she was running for PTA board. All that business about "they go low and we go high" clearly did not work. When dealing with The Liar you have to fight fire with fire. Lesson learned.
Barack Obama told The Liar that he wanted him to have success so the country would have success. Not me. I want him to fail big time. Our republic has endured worse. I hope the majority of Americans will do whatever it takes to block him at every move, expose him as the charlatan he is, and understand what a dishonest man he is.
I will not watch the inauguration or his State of the Union speech. I turn him off when I see him on television. I trust nothing he says. So sad.
K.E. POLLOCK
Little Rock
The intelligent didn't
To paraphrase Bradley Gitz's column, "Birds of a feather," intelligent, educated Americans did not vote for Donald Trump!
BILL FRITZ
Hot Springs Village
Editorial on 01/09/2017