12/26 What you’re saying: Charles Recktenwald, and Joan Walsh | The Herald Sun

When asked by a group of reporters about the possibility of the massive tax reform bill being passed before Christmas, Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina responded in the affirmative.

In sharing his opinion, he communicated that if the Republican-controlled Congress did not pass the legislation, financial contributors would stop giving and that would lead to the demise of the Republican Party.

The “contributors” to which the senator was referring are the millionaires and billionaires who can give an unlimited amount of cash, as ruled by five Republican, U. S. Supreme Court justices in the “Citizens United” case, to political candidates and support groups that engage in turning out factual or fake news in an effort to help elect the “chosen ones.”

So,”we the people” should be happy that the Republicans have given us an unexpected but needed Christmas gift as proclaimed by their leadership? Please forgive me but I refuse to associate a massive tax overhaul that will greatly benefit the wealthy while providing “crumbs” to the middleclass and small businesses and further hurting the poor with the birth of Jesus.

I see no evidence that the new tax code was inspired by the teachings of the Holy One but rather by politicians responding to the lobbyists representing the interest of the wealthy, such as Mr. Trump, whose real estate businesses will benefit “nicely” from the new tax law.

The increase in the gap between the rich and the middle class just grew larger.

Merry Christmas to All!

In response to the article in this paper (Dec. 22) about the Trump administration’s stonewalling visa applications from legal immigrants: research institutions and high-tech companies don’t seek out highly educated foreigners who need H-1B visas because they’ll work for less than people born here. At those levels, professionals are all paid well.

Foreign experts are sought because their qualifications match particular research or technical needs, and U.S. citizens’ qualifications don’t match these as well. As the article points out, demand greatly exceeds supply, necessitating a lottery, and employers must pay high attorney costs to facilitate the entry of each needed foreign employee. Trump’s policy is starving our country of skill and expertise, and our economy will suffer for it.

Stonewalling H-2B visas is similarly negative for our economy. Unskilled laborers using these visas commonly work in construction, landscaping, and service jobs, which too few U.S. citizens are willing to do. Are we to have fewer new homes, motels, restaurants, etc., built because of some ideological – and illogical – refusal to allow people who want jobs to come here and do them, when people here don’t want them? This is all the more true of farm labor, which is grueling and which very few citizens will do. No one benefits from these policies but Trump, who uses them to make points with his base.