{"id":1318795,"date":"2020-03-16T23:52:56","date_gmt":"2020-03-17T05:52:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.postindependent.com\/?p=994765"},"modified":"2020-03-16T23:52:56","modified_gmt":"2020-03-17T05:52:56","slug":"tuesday-letters-lend-a-hand-pull-together-tax-cut-folly","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/local-news\/tuesday-letters-lend-a-hand-pull-together-tax-cut-folly\/","title":{"rendered":"Tuesday letters: lend a hand, pull together, tax cut folly"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure class=\"wp-block-image p402_hide\">\n<div class=\"caption-container\"> <img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"600\" height=\"338\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.postindependent.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/6\/2019\/11\/Letters-Graphic.png\" class=\"attachment-large size-large wp-post-image\" alt srcset=\"https:\/\/cdn.postindependent.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/6\/2019\/11\/Letters-Graphic.png 600w, https:\/\/cdn.postindependent.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/6\/2019\/11\/Letters-Graphic-300x169.png 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 600px) 100vw, 600px\"><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size\"><strong>Help out our at-risk neighbors<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>On Feb. 29 I received a kidney transplant. With the coronavirus coming on strong, I could have picked a better time to have my immune system down around my ankles. But I\u2019m much healthier than before and haven\u2019t felt this good in 30 years.<\/p>\n<p>But I\u2019m a lucky guy with a family support system that\u2019s nothing short of fantastic. Unfortunately, there are many senior citizens in our communities that aren\u2019t so lucky. For most people the virus poses no more risk than the flu. But for those in the high risk category, the virus could prove fatal.<\/p>\n<p>So I appeal to our communities to reach out to our vulnerable relatives and neighbors and friends. Wear a mask and go shopping for them or pick up a prescription or whatever.<\/p>\n<p>No one needs to be carting off 100 rolls of toilet paper or three-month supplies of anything. Soon supplies will catch up with demand, and when they do, all you end-of-days stocker-uppers stay home and let people who need those goods have access. Stores would be wise to put limits of three to a customer on scarce items. In the meantime every one needs to stop acting crazy.<\/p>\n<p>I\u2019m fortunate to have optimum circumstances. There are many in our communities who aren\u2019t so lucky. Make yourself feel good and reach out to our elders. You could save a life.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Bruno Kirchenwitz<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>Rifle<\/strong><\/p>\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size\"><strong>Hang in there \u2014 together<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;At a time when our president is treating an ongoing pandemic as if it\u2019s all about him; when he is providing us with comprehensive misinformation (think about those two words for a minute); when he is identifying (or manufacturing) opportunities to deflect blame for shortcomings while taking credit for anything that might be spun into a positive, it is tempting to write another spoof about him.<\/p>\n<p>However, as much as we may need some humor at this moment, I\u2019m going to resist that urge \u2014 and note, instead, that we live in a remarkable time.&nbsp;With \u201csocial distancing\u201d being recommended by state and local leaders, medical experts, newscasters, talk-show hosts, and anyone else with a soap box and some advice to offer, we could become isolated from each other \u2014 especially if this continues for a long time.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Thanks to the availability of modern communications technology, that doesn\u2019t need to happen.&nbsp;We can check on neighbors, contact family members in distant cities, or communicate with friends and business people halfway around the world \u2014 without exposing each other to infection.<\/p>\n<p>That may not seem like a big deal, but it is.&nbsp;There is already far more separation, divisiveness and isolation in this country than is good for us. We really don\u2019t have to let this push us farther apart \u2014 especially when we have the wherewithal to stay in touch and support each other.<\/p>\n<p>With that in mind, we need to pick up our phones and talk with someone.&nbsp;Write an email, send a text message, post on social media, or send up a smoke signal \u2014 maybe even share a bit of humor.&nbsp;Then do it again \u2026<\/p>\n<p><strong>John Palmer<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>Glenwood Springs<\/strong><\/p>\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size\"><strong>Stock crash underscores tax-cut folly<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>The stock market crash associated with the coronavirus highlights yet another of Trump\u2019s follies, that being his much-celebrated tax cuts.<\/p>\n<p>Donald Trump inherited a healthy economy, recovered from the \u201908 recession and growing in all sectors.<\/p>\n<p>Obama\u2019s American Recovery and Investment Act of 2009 started the longest period of economic growth in the history of the United States. with GDP growth ranging from 1.6% to 2.9% a year while Obama was in office.<\/p>\n<p>Trump wanting to one up Obama, decided that such healthy and sustainable growth was just not enough and in a rehash of trickle-down economics gave short-term tax cuts to the middle class equivalent to a big screen TV for each family and tax cuts to corporations and wealthy individuals of about $2 trillion. Corporations spent their savings buying back company stock, and wealthy individuals invested in the stock market. None of this increased the GDP past 2.9%, which hit the same peak in the Obama administration. Additionally 8.1 million jobs were created in the last three years of the Obama administration versus 6.5 million jobs in the first three years of the Trump administration. All of Obama\u2019s last three years of job growth beat Trump\u2019s best year of job growth.<\/p>\n<p>Under Trump\u2019s economic policies the national debt grew at an unprecedented rate and the rich got richer.<\/p>\n<p>Fast forward to today the coronavirus caused a 20% market crash as did the financial and real estate bust of 2008, the 9\/11 related market crisis of 2001 and the Black Monday of 1987 before that. While nobody can predict such market fluctuations such drops are inevitable.<\/p>\n<p>Trump\u2019s \u201csupercharged\u201d market had further to fall.<\/p>\n<p>The $2 trillion American taxpayers gave to wealthy investors is gone up in smoke, the wealthy are still wealthy and future generations of the middle class are left to deal with additional trillions in debt.<\/p>\n<p>The \u201cWall\u201d is a fence, and the world\u2019s greatest con-artist is up for re-election.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Marco Diaz<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>Redstone<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.postindependent.com\/opinion\/tuesday-letters-lend-a-hand-pull-together-tax-cut-folly\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">via:: Post Independent<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Help out our at-risk neighbors On Feb. 29 I received a kidney transplant. With the coronavirus coming on strong, I could have picked a better time to have my immune system down around my ankles. But I\u2019m much healthier than before and haven\u2019t felt this good in 30 years. But I\u2019m a lucky guy with [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[160],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1318795","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","category-local-news"],"acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-09-04 07:13:02","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"distributor_meta":false,"distributor_terms":false,"distributor_media":false,"distributor_original_site_name":"KSKE Ski Country","distributor_original_site_url":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske","push-errors":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1318795","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1318795"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1318795\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1318795"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1318795"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1318795"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}