We aren’t buying what Rep. Carter is selling
In his Dec. 27 Opinion essay, Rep. Buddy Carter tried hard to convince Georgians that we stand to lose money currently in our pocket come the end of 2025 if the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act isn’t renewed.
He can tell all the tales he likes about how wonderful this piece of legislation was for everyone, and he can try to argue with a straight face that it leveled the playing field for all Americans. He’s proud as punch about his hand in this act, which allowed then-President (and now President-elect) Donald Trump to play Santa Claus with the nation’s budget to win rich friends and influence wealthy people. He swears that Trump’s brazen handout to the richest among us only enabled wealthy and well connected “job creators” to invest more dollars in jobs for the “little people.”
We aren’t buying what Carter is selling. That act increased our deficit and showered the wealthy with unseemly largesse. Fair? Hardly!
REGINA SMITH, ATHENS
State surplus needed to help Georgians
Let us consider some serious needs in Georgia as our governor and legislators propose a refund of more than $1 billion to Georgia taxpayers.
According to KFF Healthcare, Georgia is one of the five states in which people are most burdened with medical debt.
The March of Dimes recently gave Georgia an F in preterm birth rates. Black Georgians are more than twice as likely to experience complications and die. Resources are needed to provide adequate health care for pregnant women.
According to the Atlanta Community Food Bank, 1 in 8 adult Georgians is hunger insecure, and that number for children is 1 in 5.
Bread for the World reports that more than 500,000 workers in Georgia lived in households participating in SNAP (Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program) in 2021, but now SNAP lacks funds to hire staff to process applications.
Because of these pressing needs, our surplus money should not be used for tax refunds.
MARY SCOTT GOULD, DECATUR
Clean energy tops wish list for 2025
In 2025, will the people of Georgia rise to the stewardship challenge? The AJC article “GA Power to raise rates again next month” (Dec. 18) raised two concerns:
1) Will rising electric bills trigger businesses and households to invest more in energy efficiency?
2) Will Georgia legislators agree to pass legislation that opens the grids to solar and requires Georgia utilities and consumers to decarbonize?
Monopoly utilities fuel wealth but not affordability. Free markets are restricted by Georgia Power’s vertical control of power grids and incentives that increase stockholder wealth by relying on building fossil fuel-burning plants. Reliability at lower costs is realizable by relying more on God’s fusion gift in the sky and emerging affordable batteries.
Though free markets help distribute wealth and costs with evenly distributed resources and hidden costs included, ignoring external costs of pollution and greenhouse gasses requires stewarding our shared terrarium.
In 2025, ask your state legislator to help all Georgians realize the benefits of a clean energy future.
BOB JAMES, ATLANTA
Low reading scores can’t be blamed on COVID
Regarding the Dec. 19 AJC article “Louisiana: 1 in 4 3rd graders fall short in reading”:
A third grader’s inability to read cannot be blamed on the coronavirus pandemic. It can be blamed, however, on the child’s parent having no interest in the child’s future. And a third grader who cannot read will not be helped by artificial intelligence, as has been proposed.
We’re experiencing the results of children being guided by social media and taught by teachers who were weaned on TV and media platforms that give everyone an excuse for not studying. All one has to do is to pose a question, and a robot will answer. Set the books aside and Google. Or whatever. Don’t let homework interfere with TikTok.
If a child can’t read in the third grade, the child won’t be able to read in the eighth grade or contribute to society. But the child will know when the next concert will take place. Or where an artist will appear.
JACK FRANKLIN, CONYERS
