Readers write
Credit: pskinner@ajc.com
We need less drama, more truth
Is anybody else tired of the Trump-Epstein saga? I am nauseated by it. The sordid details. The photos of two creepy men grinning happily, shoulder to shoulder, flanked by their decorative women.
One is dead; the other cannot seem to get his story straight. One of the women is nearly invisible; the other is in jail, making demands for special considerations and angling for a pardon.
The man who is now in the White House keeps tangling the web he wove for himself, claiming — as usual — that he never did anything wrong and blaming — as usual — everything on the dead man and, of course, the Democrats. His Department of Justice appointees and his attorney general are running in circles trying to cover up for him. Not one of them has had a word to spare for the victims — vulnerable young girls who will live with the trauma of abuse for the rest of their lives. One of them has taken her own life.
Trump calls them “his” people, and Epstein “stole” them from him. They were property, bought and paid for. Dads, how would you feel if these were your daughters?
This has been a major diversion from the governmental chaos and incompetence we now have. Enough already. Let’s have some honesty and transparency, clean house and start serving the people who voted for you, Mr. President.
SUSANNE HOLLISTER, LILBURN
Spending reform is only hope for deficit
A letter writer (“Only way to cut deficit is to raise taxes,” July 31) asks, “What can we do to reduce the deficit? The answer is simple — raise revenue.” This will never work. The issue is that we have an uncontrolled spending problem, not a revenue problem. Federal revenues as a percentage of GDP are quite stable over time, while spending has soared.
Consider a compulsive spender with high credit card debt. Is the solution a pay raise at work (more revenue) or cutting up the credit cards (controlling spending)? The answer is clear — the cards must go. Likewise, if we increase taxes and don’t reform spending, what will happen? The new revenue, if it actually materializes, simply will be wasted by D.C. politicians.
Our only hope is to fix the spending side with a balanced budget amendment.
DANA R. HERMANSON, MARIETTA
Undoing climate rules will be disastrous
Lee Zeldin, head of the Environmental Protection Agency, is ending the scientific endangerment finding. This allows the EPA to undo many clean air and water rules.
If he is right, and we don’t encounter more warming and dirtier air and water, then I’ll tip my hat. However, I fear that this will prove to have been a total disaster.
If disaster follows, let’s forever call it Zeldin’s Folly.
BOB ROSEN, DUNWOODY
