PUBLIC HEALTH
Don’t reduce Grady’s mental services funds
Regarding “Fulton must avoid mental health cuts” (Opinion, Dec. 13) and “New Grady revenues: Fulton County’s case” (Opinion, Dec. 13), I was glad to see these opinion pieces.
Kudos to Rosalynn Carter, who has made mental health a priority in her work. It’s interesting that her column appeared as another shooter struck in Colorado. The vast majority of the mentally ill will never be violent, but the risk is present for a few. Clinics that can treat these conditions are a must.
Social support and follow-up care are necessary for maintaining stability. Please keep funds going to Grady Memorial Hospital, where a network already exists to treat patients with psychiatric diseases. These often-chronic conditions cause as much suffering as physical illnesses.
Thank you to John Eaves, for urging citizens to contact elected officials to encourage them to support federal funding to expand Medicaid so that Grady, Atlanta’s most vital community hospital, can continue to operate efficiently.
ELLEN HUNTER ULKEN, PEACHTREE CITY
TAXATION
Many will pay more as popular deductions end
At the end of this calendar year, several deductions will go away or could sunset. These include higher-education tuition and fees; teachers’ purchase of supplies for their classrooms; qualified IRA distributions for charity, and electric-car purchase deductions. Small-business equipment deductions could also drop.
The effect of these deductions going away quietly is to raise taxes on those who used them. This is a tax increase, no matter how you look at it. Why aren’t the conservative “voices” and pundits screaming about this? Why aren’t we all screaming about this? Once a tax is enacted, it almost never goes away. Tax relief almost never becomes permanent.
BILL MACKINNON, ATLANTA
POLITICS
With no compromises, nation’s future is grim
In light of the recent government shutdown, I am truly surprised the Democratic Party and the Republican Party have so many problems coming to any real sort of compromise.
Our government is designed to stop one party from gaining too much power, so I find the current state of affairs pretty ridiculous. Checks and balances require talking to one another, understanding different points of view, and creating compromise. Politicians also seem to forget that not all of their constituents voted for them, and you cannot simply ignore the voices of those people.
Right now, 53 percent of the Senate identify as Democrat, 45 percent identify as Republican and 2 percent identify as independent. I understand that not many people can say they are dead-center moderate because most people do tend to lean to one side or the other — but the fact that this many people identify as independent is a red flag.
Hopefully, politicians will learn how to talk to each other and work on a reasonable compromise quickly; but the outlook is pretty grim if our “leaders” continue on their current path to nowhere.
THOMAS LEIGH, ATLANTA
