Taxing wealthy for jobs
Recently, House Speaker John Boehner said raising taxes on “job creators” would be a bad idea.Can someone please tell me how many jobs have been created by hedge fund managers, or how many have been destroyed by those who have profited handsomely from buying and breaking up profitable businesses?Ross Warnell
Kansas City
Term-limit CongressIt has become evident that unless and until there are term limits and campaign finance reform, Congress will not do the right thing such as make wise decisions that will benefit our country and all its people — not just “my people” — rather than pander to those people and corporations that will help them get re-elected.Linda Lyon
Kansas City
No ‘joy’ in any cancerI feel The Star has stooped to an all-time low with the Aug. 7 Star Magazine feature, “The accidental cartoonists.” What were the editors thinking when they published the so-called “comics” of the “Joy of Cancer” written by Robert and Donna Trussell?I myself have had cancer and I can assure you there is no joy in this dreaded disease. I’m glad Mrs. Trussell has been free of ovarian cancer for 10 years, but has she forgotten all the tears, anxiety, surgeries, procedures, needles, pain and sleepless nights she had, not to mention all the heartache that her family went through?I, for one, saw nothing funny in the “Joy of Cancer.” I found it terribly offensive and in poor taste.Carol Showalter
Kansas City
Reality over politicsMany letters complain about the president reminding Americans of public debt incurred by the previous administration. Of course, opponents would love to have us forget the unpaid cost of the George W. Bush tax cuts, the Iraq war and the drug bill.No one can truthfully deny the negative effect of those events on the public debt. Without the Bush tax cuts alone, our debt to gross domestic product ratio would be a lot lower this year, even after all of the other fiscal shocks of the last 10 years. It would be considered a manageable debt level by most standards. Sorry, but we must not ignore the facts from the past and their effect on the current debt levels.I know it is just politics, but reality has to trump politics in this case.Jerry Nowak
Lee’s Summit
True Republican commitment lackingIf the Republicans in the U.S. Congress are serious about cutting government spending, why don’t they cut their pay and eliminate their health care and pension package. Ain’t gonna happen.Larry Everhart
Paola
Change ahead for U.S.What do President Barack Obama and the left fear more the any force on earth? The American people uniting and saying they’ve had enough. While left-wing pundits try to marginalize Fox News viewers as “birthers” or gun-toting kooks, the fact remains the majority (or what used to be called the “silent majority”) of this country’s citizens are the ones who made this country great. The resurgence of the American middle class is the dread of the Obama/socialist left. Embodied in this middle ground are the values of our forefathers and a decency the Barney Franks of this world will never understand. “Truth, justice, and the American way” or whichever corny phrase you chose, Americans don’t like socialist concepts passed off as mainstream values.I apologize to those who embrace Mr. Obama, but every time I see this guy do his thing in front of the teleprompter it reminds me of the barker at the state fair telling us how much we will win if we hand him our spare change. Remember that old saying, “If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is?” In the case of Obama and the Democratic Party, this point has been proven beyond doubt.Gregory H. Bontrager
Hutchinson, Kan.
Rockefeller Republicans?The problem is simply the 2012 election. The right-wing puppeteers use the big lie technique, saying President Barack Obama is a Marxist.Obama has done more to prove that there is a possibility that there is room for a Rockefeller Republican side inside the Republican Party.H. Lon Swearingen
Kansas City
Bullets never ‘stray’Is it possible that The Kansas City Star’s news staff could see to it that the newspaper stops referring to “stray” bullets? Bullets are not dogs or cats with wills of their own. There are no “stray” bullets. Bullets go where the Second Amendment “patriots” point the guns from which the bullets are fired. Blair Lane’s killer may be stupid or simply incompetent as a shooter, but he nonetheless intentionally fired a gun pointed in a direction he intended, which resulted in putting a bullet in a child’s brain.“Stray bullet,” with its connotation of guiltless misadventure, is a pro-gun euphemism. It’s a term that has no place in a fact-based news story.Hollis Hanover
Kansas City
Goofy governmentAs seen on an email I received: “Fathom the hypocrisy of a government that will require every citizen to prove he or she is insured — but not everyone must prove they are citizens.”Greg Ramsey
Kansas City
Republican ‘me’ PartyRepublicans are the I’ve-got-mine-and-will-legislate-against-you-getting-yours political party. They will always claim to be the party of self-responsibility.So it is two-faced for them to claim that lowering taxes for the rich will create jobs. The higher tax cuts still leave them wealthy well beyond their true value to this country.It’s about time someone mentioned the fact that they have had a lowered tax rate for 10 years and that too many corporations don’t even pay taxes. That has not led to hiring but has led to many layoffs.And this is a scant few years after the Republicans had control over the Senate, House of Representatives, judiciary, and the executive branches of the government. Let’s not forget that the wheels came off the economy and the job market during the George W. Bush presidency.It is clear that Republicans are self-serving, and the rich are unpatriotic for outsourcing and hiring illegal immigrants.Randy Shives
Buford Shives
Kansas City
Royals seat-jumpingAnyone wishing to get a good seat for a Kansas City Royals game should purchase one. The thin attendance of the past several years, and the Royals’ non-aggressive ushers have lead to an epidemic of squatters in the closer sections.To assume that it is OK to switch to seats that are empty is akin to grabbing a pair of shoes on the way out of a store saying, “Nobody was wearing them.” I used to worry about what this behavior was teaching the children being dragged from one unpaid seat to another. But in truth, children all know how to be self-centered from the first slap on the butt.How can parents help them to get beyond this first stage of development when they haven’t managed to grow up themselves? Just being able get away with it is no reason you should do so.John Lundberg
Liberty
Fame? Emporia?I see where the town of Emporia, Kan., is trying to promote itself on interstate billboards. Sadly, the best they can say is that some NASCAR driver hails from there.Ken Hedden
Parkville
Jilted in NorthlandGee, Trader Joe’s, those of us who live north of the Missouri River eat and drink, also. I know you are a destination store, but why would you open two stores so near to each other, both closer to the southern side of the Kansas City area?Mary B. Stang
Parkville
