Readers write
We need leaders who put country ahead of president
I read that President Donald Trump blamed Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth for misleading him about the nation’s weapons stockpile. Earlier, I heard Sen. Mark Kelly, D-Arizona, warning if Trump appointees cannot admit in a hearing that Trump lost the 2020 election, then how could they ever disagree with him in a Cabinet meeting?
Did Hegseth deliberately mislead Trump about our weapons’ strength or simply go along with Trump’s wishes to keep threatening Iran? We all know Trump is never wrong. He never admits that. Never. Just look at the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool — the symbol of his self-perceived greatness.
Our Republican brothers and sisters, except for a few, are enabling his narcissistic behavior. For representative democracy to flourish, we need rational leaders on the left and right who stop denying reality. Then we can begin to stop his immoral policies.
We need a courageous Congress willing to negotiate what’s best for all Americans and keep passing bipartisan bills, such as affordable housing and much-needed national permitting reform that includes transmission. Americans need affordable and reliable energy. Future generations need rational policymakers.
Loyalty to the president should not supersede loyalty to Americans. Trump’s self-aggrandizement and personal profits endanger Americans.
BOB JAMES, ATLANTA
Government spending keeps increasing
I agree with an Aug. 13 letter writer (“National debt needs bipartisan attention”) that the national debt desperately needs bipartisan solutions. However, the writer states, “We can’t just stop spending on government programs, and the only way out is more tax revenue.” I profoundly disagree, as we have a spending problem, not a revenue problem.
We know that taxpayers adjust their behavior in response to changes in tax policy, keeping the share of Gross Domestic Product flowing to the federal government fairly stable over time. What has changed is our spending, which has steadily climbed.
Further, there is massive fraud, waste and abuse in government programs. COVID-relief fraud alone may total hundreds of billions of dollars, according to the U.S. General Accounting Office. There is plenty more fat to cut, and there are many areas where we must ask, “Should the feds be involved in this?” I’d love to see a federal government “reset” with massive cuts where possible.
Overall, we need government to adjust to the size of the resources sent to Washington, D.C., not for taxpayers to adjust to what D.C. politicians and bureaucrats want to spend and what fraudsters want to steal.
DANA R. HERMANSON, MARIETTA