Readers write

Budget falls short of reining in spending

Carolyn Bourdeaux’s “Here’s why the Big, Beautiful Bill Act is crushingly unfair” (AJC, July 6) provides some harsh truths about the country’s financial condition — its runaway national debt and continuing deficits. But it also shades the predicament’s causes by furthering the left’s perspective on it.

What is “crushingly unfair” — and has been for years — is the government’s profligate spending on myriad programs supposedly trying to make things “fair.”

And what the left always elides in its analysis of who benefits from tax cuts is the simple explanation that it’s taxpayers who benefit. Those not paying income taxes, by definition, can’t receive a tax cut. And with almost 50% of earners not paying any federal income taxes, that’s a lot of people “not benefiting.” At least not further than they already do.

The crushing unfairness of the new budget bill is that it falls far short of reining in the country’s decades of ill-advised spending on programs into which the federal government was never intended to venture.

You disagree? Let’s watch if socialist Zohran Mamdani becomes mayor of New York City to witness how fatal his unrelenting fairness will be.

GREGORY MARSHALL, MARIETTA

Instead of draining, Trump made swamp larger

In the beginning, the budget goals were to improve border security and to lower the deficit. Republicans always ridicule the Democrats for the increases in the budget deficit, even though Trump increased it during his last term by $7 trillion. They railed about backroom deals and pork barrel spending. Well, he is at it again.

Under this legislation, the deficit will increase by $5 trillion at first blush. Alaska received 19 special treatments; Georgia received none. The pork barrel is highlighted by two Texas senators’ approved request for $85 million to relocate the space shuttle from the Smithsonian in Washington to Texas because they wanted it moved there. What purpose does this address? If the Texans want to move it, then pay for it yourself. This and other expenditures that were made reduced food assistance and cut Medicaid.

So this is a win in Trump’s book. Additional tax cuts were for the rich, who benefit the most from what is in the bill. Cuts were made to programs that would help the poor and feed students. Let’s see how this enhances our economy, especially in impoverished areas and conservative states. Let’s hear them whine when their hospitals start to close.

Trump doesn’t care a bit for the poor, except for their votes. The “swamp” hasn’t been drained; it has been enlarged.