CLIMATE CHANGE
Carbon fee, tariff can stem global emissions
With all the fuss over President Obama’s recent climate speech, it would seem that the obvious alternative’s time has come. Congress must fix the problem, so the issue is not left up to the Environmental Protection Agency.
There is a better policy approach that Republicans can support without abandoning their conservative principles. It’s simple: Put a steadily rising fee on carbon, and return the money to U.S. households. As for China and the rest, a border tariff assessed on goods from countries that fail to enact similar policies will protect American industry from unfair competition, and encourage other nations to quickly follow our lead.
Many in Congress now see what economists from across the political spectrum have said: A carbon fee and rebate program will reduce emissions, create domestic jobs and protect the U.S. economy from unfair competition.
BRANDON SUTTON, ATLANTA
OBAMACARE
GOP should offer its own health plan
As the gradual implementation of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) slowly takes effect, one can rest assured that Republican opposition to it will become even more determined.
Would it not be helpful if the Republicans could present their alternative health care plan? If they were successful in overturning the ACA, what type of plan(s) would be available to the American public? Would we go back to the pre-ACA days where insurance premiums were doubling every 10 years? Back to a time when pre-existing conditions were excluded from being available at a reasonable cost? Or possibly resurrecting their argument that the states should provide 50 separate plans? Consider what our present interstate highway system would look like if a past president had suggested to the individual state governors that they get together and work out the “details.”
The ACA has some issues to be worked out, but it is an attempt to address a growing national health care problem. The Republicans may have a fantastic plan, but where is it? Should the American public not be demanding an answer?
WADE WILLIAMS, PEACHTREE CITY
VOTING RIGHTS ACT
Columnist’s tirade is divorced from reality
Has Leonard Pitts gone off the deep end?
I realize he finds racism in every action taken by any non-liberal, but he really outdid himself in “Voting Rights Act gutted; now is no time to sit idle” (Opinion, July 4). According to Mr. Pitts, it is a time for “dread.” He speaks of a “stunning and despicable decision.” With the country having elected and re-elected a black man as president, does Mr. Pitts expect new Jim Crow laws, poll taxes, restrictions on when minorities can vote, and to top that — citizenship repealed?
The year is 2013, not 1963. Black Americans can participate the same as whites. I find his comments not only offensive, but divorced from the reality of today’s America.
JUDITH MCCARTHY, ATLANTA
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