Debt ceiling solution
The disgraceful and dysfunctional bipartisan debt ceiling charade exposes a basic, but generally suppressed, truth — namely, that the two-party ruling elite in Washington are genetically committed to a “forever war economy” that guarantees unlimited wealth to the top 1% while denying a living wage or a decent universal health system for the vast majority of the other 99%.
But there is a simple — yet elegant — three-step solution to this fraudulent impasse.
1) Stop the salary checks to the three branches of the federal government, starting at the White House, including for all 535 con-gressional members, the nine unethical Supreme Court “justices,” the pompous Cabinet talking heads like Antony Blinken at the State Department, Janet Yellen at Treasury and Lloyd Austin at the Department of Defense.
2) Put a mandatory three- to six-month hold on payments to all weapons contractors to the Department of Defense until a thorough independent audit is done at the Pentagon (the only department that has never gone through an audit — and past history shows it likely would never pass), with strict provisions for billion-dollar “clawbacks” on all nonbid and cost-overrun contracts.
3) Repeal immediately all the Trump-era tax giveaways ($5 trillion or more!) to the top billionaires that were passed by both Democrat and Republican legislators, and enact new legislation that top income earners pay at least double the tax rate for working-class taxpayers.
Voila! If the spineless Con-gress can muster enough courage to pass these three fair and effective measures, I will even bet my (delayed) Social Security check for June that the so-called “debt ceiling” impasse/charade will be resolved in record time.
Danny H.C. Li
Keaau
Gun legislation
Upon reading your commentary piece, “The four freedoms, according to Republicans,” in the May 20 issue, I have one overriding question: How can Republicans justify producing legislation promoting gun ownership and use when guns are now the top cause of death for children and teenagers in this country?
Karen Cooper
Hilo
