JOBS ACT
President should quicken the pace
Thankfully, the president has finally laid out an outline for his recommendations to help to create jobs, and to provide ways to pay for his plan. We urgently need to proceed with reviewing and enacting these efforts.
We hope that soon the House and Senate will have the details of the president’s jobs proposals. Once they are received, the proposals should be referred to the appropriate committees. Once the committees have completed their work on this phase, and the president’s “pay-for” plan is presented and enacted, the supporting jobs creation actions should be voted upon.
Here is an alternate suggestion for the president. We all know that “shovel-ready” programs (particularly where governments are involved) usually take a long time to get jobs started. My suggestion is that the president give his jobs program a jump start by immediately removing all drilling prohibitions and placing a 10-year moratorium on any further blocking tactics. Such an action would instantly give a boost to the stock markets, and would result in job creation at a quicker pace than any of the president’s jobs plans.
Bill Lyons, Smyrna
COLUMNIST
Krugman’s words have no place in newspaper
Please stop running Paul Krugman’s drivel in the AJC. Please do not validate his absurd points of view. I am admittedly a conservative, but I do appreciate reading what some liberal columnists have to say (such as Jay Bookman and E.J. Dionne). I don’t agree with them, but I think it is important to look at things from another side. Krugman’s words are just poison, though, and have no place in our fine paper.
Heather Duncan, Suwanee
SMOKING BAN
Commissioners fail at logical leadership
I am deeply disappointed in the DeKalb County commissioners’ inability to enact a piece of legislation that would greatly enhance the quality of life for residents of DeKalb County. An indoor smoking ban would provide a cleaner indoor environment for adults who do not smoke. The “rights” of the people who do smoke are deemed more important than those who do not cause the well-documented health hazards and deadly effects of cigarette smoking.
The many state and local ordinances that guarantee safer, nonsmoke indoors have proven to not be a deterrent to businesses.
The commissioners have failed to provide positive, logical leadership by discounting their confidence in the people of DeKalb County’s ability to thrive by conforming to proven, common-sense legislation. We are at least as good and able as any other locality.
A.E. DeWitt, Decatur
