Readers write

Without Trump, there would be no tax cuts

Regarding Sunday’s Opinion piece by Jenna Aronowitz, “Tax cuts help keep the American Dream alive in Georgia and across the nation,” opinions from a small business owner are really appreciated. They’re not just aimless conjectures; they’re spoken with experienced authority.

The tax cuts won’t be fully appreciated until tax returns are filed for 2025. Donald Trump is a businessman and understands the struggle of successful small businesses. The increased standard deduction will benefit those over 65 — even those who itemize.

There would have been no tax cuts had Trump not been elected.

JACK FRANKLIN, CONYERS

Proposed ceasefire rewards Russian aggression

A national disgrace: compelling Ukraine to accept a ceasefire that effectively rewards naked aggression. Trump’s latest so-called peace plan is nothing more than a demand for Ukraine’s preemptive surrender. By demanding sweeping territorial concessions, limiting Ukraine’s armed forces to 600,000 troops and blocking any future path to NATO membership, the proposal tramples on Ukraine’s sovereignty and echoes the disastrous Munich Agreement of 1938 — a deal that only emboldened Adolf Hitler to pursue a wider war.

Russia’s assault on Ukraine violates international law, the U.N. Charter and the commitments it made in the 1994 Budapest Memorandum, under which Ukraine relinquished its nuclear arsenal in exchange for guarantees of its territorial integrity. Trump’s plan hands Moscow what it has failed to achieve through nearly four years of brutal warfare.

Trump’s plan is indefensible, dastardly, perilous and fundamentally un-American.

ROBERT KENNEDY, ATLANTA

Trump puts on the charm for Mamdani

Speculation about the meeting between Zohran Mamdani and Donald Trump on Nov. 21 was that it would resemble the takedown of Volodymyr Zelenskyy of Ukraine in February.

Zelenskyy was in a position of weakness and was asking for help from the U.S. Apparently, Mamdani was not in a weak position. Trump was instead on a charm offensive and flattered Mamdani. Totally reminded me of the way he treated Kim Jong Un of North Korea after Trump’s visit during his first term. Is Trump now expecting a repeat of love letters from this new pal?

JOHN SOUTHALL, ROSWELL

Sales tax can be progressive, too

The mantra that sales tax is regressive and income tax is progressive is pure fiction. Even economists repeat that total fiction, as if they had never heard of Irving Fisher’s consumption tax.

Just make zero sales tax on food and high taxes on luxury items, then the sales tax is more progressive than any income tax. But no one discusses Fisher’s brilliant proposal.