Mailbag

Giffords Should Disregard the Deficit-Reduction Proposal

Dear Gabby (Giffords): I hear you've been to Cornell. I think you're smart enough to crunch the actual budget numbers. I realize you almost lost to an ignoramus spouting contradictory nonsense, but consider what will happen when the benefactors of that candidate have even more money to play with.

I find it alarming that the Tucson Weekly quoted you as giving the time of day to the Simpson-Bowles "proposal" ("Financial Bind," The Skinny, Nov. 18). Yeah I've read it: There's not really that much to it.

Leaving aside Social Security, it seems to me that most of the suggested removals of exemptions fall on what's left of the middle class, while dropping the top marginal tax rates to the lowest they've been since 1915. Gilded age, here we come!

Or more accurately, political cover, here we come!

How can we ask ordinary Americans to work even harder, for less, to hope to get our way out of this mess, while expecting not even mild inconvenience from those who are making more than 98 percent of their fellow citizens? It's insane. The House should take a stand, and let the tax cuts expire for those making $250,000 a year.

Incidentally, with all due respect to Barack, making them permanent, even for what's left of the middle class, is bad fiscal policy. A fiscally responsible government lowers taxes by finding genuine savings first, not by knowingly and deliberately creating huge deficits and then declaring, "We're broke!" before borrowing trillions from foreign investors, leaving our grandchildren on the hook.

Shane J. Dyer


DREAM Act Piece Only Covers Part of the Amnesty Story

I am concerned that your article regarding the DREAM Act only covers part of the story ("No Papers, No Dream," Dec. 2). I do understand compassion for those less fortunate than others, but I would ask that you think about those who have literally spent years and years and thousands of dollars to come here, and are still waiting ... legally.

When thinking about any sort of amnesty, I find myself asking if the DREAM Act would actually be giving amnesty to folks who knew better and intentionally thumbed their nose at our laws. It seems this is the case, and it should be plain to all that the bind these irresponsible parents have put their children in by bringing them here—in direct violation of our laws—is not our problem, but that of these law-breaking parents.

If this is true, then should the DREAM Act pass, are we to then allow these amnestied kids to petition our government to allow their parents to stay here as well? When thinking about how giving amnesty to these children will ultimately reward the disrespect of the parents for our laws, I find little compassion in my heart. It does not seem right or proper to be rewarding these families in this manner. We should be teaching better standards than this! This can only lead the 46 percent (according to the Pew Hispanic Center) of Mexican citizens who would come if they could to start packing their bags in anticipation of the next "amnesty."

We, as a country, have the right to say who comes, what diseases they do or don't carry into our country, and how many come at a time. No illegal alien has bothered to have a health check before entering our country! We do not know what illnesses may come with them. We have an obligation to protect our own citizens.

Then, of course, we should also be concerned about how these folks assimilate into our society. Remember, they are running from a country that is failing; this is primarily why they risk illegally crossing our borders. By not controlling their numbers, they bring their cultural problems with them, thereby corrupting our own society.

Russell Sias


A Modest Open Letter to Jan Brewer

Gov. Brewer: You have now passed Arnold Schwarzenegger on my list of best governors ever! Former Govs./Presidents Richard Nixon and Ronald Reagan are above you, but I'm crossing my fingers that you become president some day, too!

I am writing to tell you "congratulations" on beating that Democrat, or should I say "communist," Terry Goddard, to stay our governor. I also want to thank you for calling a spade a spade and a criminal a criminal by making it legal to put Mexicans in jail, where they belong, for being Mexican. Good for you!

But recently, you and your patriotic team of real Arizonans, the Republicans, have done one better: You have made the hard choices on the budget. Not only have you cut education for citizens too stupid to get educated the first time by eliminating the adult-education budget; you have made the hard choices about life and death, just like the Creator had to when he chose Noah to build the ark.

Your latest budget cut transplants from the ACCCHS budget, saving the state $5 million. People don't deserve to live if they don't have health care. Good for you for passing a budget that lets these slackers die. And good for you for not bowing to the blackmail of the U.S. government, which wanted to bribe you with $15 million in matching funds if Arizona could find that $5 million for transplants.

Stay the course, and perhaps one day, you'll pass Nixon on my best governors' list!

Tex Shelters, aka Joe Callahan