Buyer's remorse felt
I believe the overwhelming defeat of two ordinances proposed by City Director Antwan Phillips at Tuesday's Little Rock Board of Directors meeting is clear indication that the political career of Mayor Frank Scott has turned sour in the last few months. Not only are citizens feeling buyer's remorse, but apparently so are the majority of city directors.
It seems Scott sealed his own fate when he failed to recognize his plan to raise the sales tax was ill-advised. He could have asked us to simply renew the 3/8-cent expiring tax. His big error in judgment has cost this city over $190 million in tax revenue that could go toward public safety and infrastructure. That's what the 3/8 cent has yielded in its 10-year life. Citizens will be reminded of this as they dodge potholes that are crying out for a little asphalt.
DON SHELLABARGER
Little Rock
Wait a minute; what?
So many topics, so little time. With apologies and thanks to Amber on "Late Night with Seth Meyers":
Defense attorney argues self-defense, that Kyle Rittenhouse feared being shot with the gun he himself brought to the protest. What?
Arkansas legislators bemoan the fact that UAMS may have to choose between federal funds and state funds in deciding whether to break the ridiculous, misinformed state law the Legislature enacted. What?
Republican House members' only arguments against the censure of Paul Gosar are essentially "we are wasting time that should be devoted to obstructing the people's business" and "Biden is bad." What?
To avoid offending, we continue to allow that people should have the right to "ask questions" about the vaccine before having themselves and their children subjected to the torture of good health. What?
We are really, after all these years, considering book-burning again. What? (Well, at least it ain't socialism.)
As recently as a week ago, Texas was still in the Top 25 of some college football polls, even ahead of Arkansas. What?
And finally, astonishingly, too many people think that Sarah Huckabee Sanders is actually qualified to be the governor of our great state. What??!!
Stay tuned for more "Chuck Says What?"
CHUCK GOSS
Little Rock
Would seem logical
Reading Phillip McMath and Pham Liem's guest column in last Sunday's Perspective section led me to wonder if they wrote a similar article on Donald Trump.
If not, why not?
PAT LASTER
Benton
The nation needed it
As letters to the editor have pointed out, Rep. Steve Womack has attempted to justify his vote against the infrastructure bill in two ways. First, as I myself also wrote to Representative Womack, by representing it as a stalking horse for the Build Back Better legislation, he simply ignores the merit of the infrastructure bill itself as well as the fact that it was voted on standing alone. He has also criticized the bill by saying that it "is not paid for."
Many, if not most, government programs are "not paid for" when they are instituted. Whether they are ever paid for depends on future government and economic events that cannot be foreseen at the time of their enactment (as well as interpretation of what has and has not been "paid for"). A better calculus is whether a program/legislation is something the country needs.
Either Representative Womack has forgotten his learning of recent economics or chooses to ignore it. John Maynard Keynes introduced the theory of government deficit spending in his monumental 1936 paper "Theory of Employment, Interest and Money." Note that this was during the Great Depression. By the end of the '30s, most Western economies has adopted its ideas. Again in the financial crisis of 2007-2008, these policies were used by the Obama administration to rescue American industry.
So please do not tell us that the infrastructure bill is not paid for. It is something the country desperately needs. Let us be forthright about our party loyalties and admit it when our voting is purely partisan.
RUSSELL BRASHER
Fort Smith