Tuesday’s letters | Letters | greensboro.com – Greensboro News & Record

Inexcusable

The Republican ire over the House and Senate’s bipartisan passage of the 2021 infrastructure bill is unwarranted, and the threatening backlash against Republicans voting for it is inexcusable.

Infrastructure improvements have long been a bipartisan priority, as it benefits virtually everyone if our roads, bridges, airports, etc., are repaired and improved. The fact that this bill includes broadband benefits for rural areas (Republican strongholds) can only improve lives. Even Sen. Mitch McConnell enthusiastically voted for the bill, and he never supports a Democratic proposal.

Eisenhower’s Republican administration built our beloved interstate highway system. Reagan passed the gas tax increase to pay for highway and mass transit improvements. Trump campaigned on a $1 trillion infrastructure promise, and nearly backed a $2 trillion package in 2019; his quid pro quo demand that Democrats cease investigating him ended that initiative.

Infrastructure is certainly not a “socialist” program, but a necessity. Why was there no Republican fiscally conservative outrage when Trump’s 2017 tax cut increased debt by $8 trillion, benefiting the wealthy and corporations, while realizing none of the benefits promised for the rest of us?

Trump, McCarthy et al appear to be flip-flopping hypocrites who go against the American majority, solely to downplay a Democratic advancement.

Meredith Millard

Greensboro

Steady as we go

I am grateful that Greensboro has a steady, though not necessarily astounding, growth rate (“Greensboro’s population growth lags the state’s top metros, but experts say it’s still a sign of strength,” Nov. 14).

One of the latest senior communities in Atlanta features independent living, assisted living and memory care units. A one-bedroom independent living unit rents for $14,000 a month. If you find a 15-minute rush hour taxing, you should speak with citizens of Atlanta, who spend one and one half hours on their daily commute to work.

If you lament the limited resources for infrastructure in your area, you should speak to Uber drivers in Atlanta, who routinely replace tires due to the excessive number of potholes on the most popular routes.

If you decry your noisy neighbors, you should speak to firemen in Atlanta, whose hearing of phone calls for assistance is challenged by incessant construction noise in their area. Finally, when bust times hit boom cities, the suffering from down times is as profound as the exhilaration of bust times.

There is much to be grateful for in Greensboro.

Gay Davis

Greensboro

Inflation

‘s toll

In 1929, Herbert Hoover had been president for about six months when the stock market crashed. For the rest of his term, the Great Depression took hold. Hoover’s name became a joke; it was 20 years before another Republican was elected president.

It has been about six months since Joe Biden became president. The worst inflation since the Revolutionary War is taking hold. Biden will be blamed for this.

The worst catastrophe, however, would be if the Republicans somehow put Trump back in the White House, and it could happen, given the recent insanity of American politics.

The incipient inflation has been caused by the irresponsibility of the Federal Reserve in expanding the supply of money and credit to accommodate every sort of government project. The lessons of economist Milton Friedman and Federal Reserve Chairman Paul Volcker, as well as the bad examples of numerous other countries, have not been heeded.

Tom Kirby-Smith

Greensboro

End the food tax

Amid all the furor over education in the Virginia governor’s race, one aspect of Glenn Youngkin’s victory is often overlooked. He made it part of his platform to repeal Virginia’s food tax. His pledge received a lot of attention, and undoubtedly helped him to victory. Only 13 states tax groceries (because it’s such a regressive tax), and Virginians have been paying tax to eat since the late 1960s.

North Carolinians have been burdened with a food tax since 1961 when Gov. “Food Tax Terry” Sanford imposed it as “a temporary measure.”

Repeal of the vestigial and obsolete food tax will help every single North Carolinian, particularly low-income working families, requires no new government program or bureaucracy, and needs no administration to implement.

Ask your state representative to fully and finally repeal the food tax. Sixty years is “temporary” enough.

Austin Morris

Colfax

Tanger kudos

Recently, a number of letters complaining about some aspects of the Tanger Center have appeared in the News & Record. I’ve become acquainted with a very hardworking employee at the Tanger named Crystal. She has helped me beyond imagination with several issues.

She helped me exchange a ticket but I couldn’t get a scan code. She called me and walked me through the website to get that code.

I so appreciate you, Crystal! Kudos to you!

Mary Pat Haaf

Greensboro