Readers share views on voter fraud, Gov. Brownback, word use
Brownback’s plan
On nearly a weekly basis since Gov. Sam Brownback introduced his strong tax cuts, Star editorials have preached doom and gloom for Kansas.
Since not long after the tax cuts took effect in 2013, editorials have contended that they have been a failure.
No, tax cuts aren’t magic, but it has been shown in virtually every instance that when citizens, including businesses, get to keep more of their money, economic growth is spurred and more jobs and tax revenue follow. Kansas is no exception.
Kansas tax revenue for November exceeded estimates by about $8 million according to the Kansas Revenue Department, and sales tax receipts increased $17 million in November 2015 over 2014. The Kansas unemployment rate dropped to 4.1 percent in October, with 2,500 non-farm jobs being added since September.
The real problem in many areas is filling jobs. Net worth has increased in nearly every county. Economic growth has been steady as well, coming in at 3.4 percent in the fourth quarter of 2014, the highest in the nation.
Many though continue to cry that Gov. Brownback’s successful tax cuts have harmed their pet government programs.
It is wealth creation from businesses, though, that makes those programs possible.
Mark S. Robertson
Independence
Goldberg column
In his Dec. 6 column, “San Bernardino prayers provoke a dubious front page,” Jonah Goldberg condemns the New York Daily News for calling out prominent right-wing Republicans in Congress because they offered “thoughts and prayers” after the latest mass shooting as a substitute for serious legislative action on stricter gun control.
Mr. Goldberg, ever the apologist for the National Rifle Association and politicians who do the gun lobby's bidding, decries the Daily News article as a “frenzy of sneering sanctimony and condescension.”
What the Daily News has done in its front page story is following an old (and nearly forgotten) newspaper tradition of calling out powerful interests (NRA) and cynical politicians who substitute platitudes for sensible gun control legislation.
As Finley Peter Dunne observed in the Chicago Evening Post long ago: “The job of the newspaper is to comfort the afflicted and afflict the comfortable.”
Dennis McIntyre
Kansas City
Effect on affected
This letter is about “affect” and “effect.” Today, I think the words are generally considered too puny to use.
They are being left behind by the big bully word, “impact.”
This transmogrification is happening everywhere, not only in the printed word but spoken as well. Listen to newscasters or anyone who has the choice and chooses the dramatic word almost every time.
We recently received a notice from Missouri Gas Energy.
It addresses the new statement format and how it will “impact” us.
I was momentarily concerned about a staggering rate increase, but that wasn’t it at all.
My guess is that the members of the billing team who produced this document are all under age 30 and are not familiar with “effect” and “affect.”
I am sorry to see you dwindle away, old friends, effect and affect. I will carry your standard for the years I have left.
But I fear you both will (as it says in the song) just fade away.
Joan Henges
Kansas City
Obamacare reality
I would like to respond to Rep. Sam Graves’ newsletter, which I received in an email, about the Affordable Care Act.
Graves tells us that we Americans are overwhelmingly unhappy with Obamacare, as he refers to it. He brags that the Republican-led House worked to pass a reconciliation bill to partially defund the law, which would lead to its demise.
But, no, an overwhelming number of people are not unhappy with the Affordable Care Act.
Many of Graves’ constituents are tired of him and his cohorts threatening to take away affordable insurance. Does he live in a bubble, believing everyone is provided with affordable health insurance?
For many, Obamacare is the only affordable insurance.
Graves’ medical insurance is mostly paid by a federal subsidy. Do he and his cronies believe only they deserve affordable health insurance?
Paula Anderson
Blue Springs
This story was originally published December 7, 2015 at 9:00 AM with the headline "Readers share views on voter fraud, Gov. Brownback, word use."