About The times. (Gainesville, Ga.) 1972-current | View Entire Issue (Jan. 29, 2020)
4A OPINION ®he £ntics gainesvilletimes.com Wednesday, January 29, 2020 Shannon Casas Editor in Chief | 770-718-3417 | scasas@gainesvilletimes.com Submit a letter: letters@gainesvilletimes.com The First Amendment: Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances. LITERS We should listen to Rep. Schiff The closing arguments by Rep. Adam Schiff on Thursday and Friday lays it on the line not only for the senators acting as jurors but for you and me: We can’t count on Trump to defend the inter ests and national security of our nation. Abuse of power in this case is putting personal above national interest. Furthermore, as Rep. Schiff noted, just as important, a vote against the second article, obstruction of Congress, means any future presi dent is a king. He or she could ignore a co-equal branch of government. It’s a cult when you let one person do that. It’s no longer a constitutional government when you let a second. Courage demands of us and our senators that we no longer accept the danger of the 45th presi dent. America is more than any policy, any party, any division. It is united around the Constitution. The president is a threat to the Constitution. He must be removed. Where were you when Rep. Schiff made these arguments? Where were you when the republic heard its most desperate, most stalwart, most patriotic defense in modern times? Where were you? I hope you were listening. Matthew Boedy Gainesville What did the president know and when? Well, without getting into the foray of this impeachment thing — for I’m sure folks have their own ideas of reckoning, and I “reckon” we all do and some folks will “reckon” their ideas are right and yours are wrong — but what I did notice and have now come to know is that in these pro ceedings, names like Hamilton and Madison kept popping up. We all know something about them from our history class of long ago. They probably wrote great things and wore wigs. However, another name kept “popping up” in these wranglings. A name that came along in my lifetime and maybe some folks out there as well. And I soon learned that none of the congressional staffers that answered the phone knew who he was. Of course, if they were to ask me about anything concerning the latest fads, I, of course, would have to resort to my “Google machine.” But since they represented us, maybe some could pass the “pop quiz” concerning a more recent history of impeachment. I even hinted that his sidekick was Fred Thompson of “Law and Order” TV fame. Maybe some would have seen the show or perhaps reruns. The TV show was on for 20 years and did not go off the air until 2010. Alas, that clue did not help either. So in the end, I had to write the correct answer on the proverbial chalkboard. As none passed the “pop quiz.” Howard Henry Baker was the name that I was looking for — better known as Howard H. Baker, the great Republican senator, majority leader and chief of staff for President Ronald Reagan — and his partner on the Watergate Committee was of course Fred Thompson who later became a Republican senator from Tennessee. And it was his name that kept popping up in these latest hear ings. And it was his famous quote that came alive again, “what did the president know and when did he know it?” Fortunately most of us can use our “Google machine” today and see Sen. Baker ask this famous question, and hopefully as a nation we all relearn this question — for if we don’t, another “pop quiz” will surely follow us down the road. Bill Luttrell Gainesville To submit a letter Send by email to letters@gainesvilletimes. com or use the contact form at gainesvilletimes.com. Include name, hometown and phone number; letters never appear anonymously. Letters are limited to 500 words on topics of public interest and may be edited for content and length. Writers are limited to one letter per month. Letters may be rejected from readers with no ties to Northeast Georgia or that address personal, business or legal disputes. Letters not the work of the author listed or with material not properly attributed will be rejected. Submitted items may be published in print, electronic or other forms. Letters and other commentary express the opinions of the authors and not of The Times. Your government officials U.S. government President Donald frump, The White House, 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. NW, Washington, DC 20500, 202-456-1111,202-456-1414, fax, 202-456- 2461; www.whitehouse.gov Sen. Kelly Loeffler, B85 Russell Senate Office Building, Washington, DC 20510, 202-224-3643 Sen. David Perdue, 383 Russell Senate Office Building, Washington, DC 20510, 202-224- 3521, fax 202-228-1031; 3280 Peachtree Road NE Suite 2640, Atlanta 30303, 404-865-0087, fax 404-865-0311; perdue.senate.gov. U.S. Rep. Doug Collins, 1504 Longworth House Office Building, Washington, DC 20515, 202- 225-9893; 210 Washington St. NW, Suite 202, Gainesville 30501,770-297-3388; dougcollins. house.gov Georgia state government Gov. Brian Kemp, 203 State Capitol, Atlanta 30334; 404-656-1776; www.gov.georgia.gov Lt. Gov. Geoff Duncan, 240 State Capitol, Atlanta 30334, 404-656-5030; www.ltgov.ga.gov Watching the state economy, taxes and budget under Kemp Even though it doesn’t always feel that way, more people will get up and go to work today in Georgia than at any time in the state’s history. In the past year alone, a quarter-million new jobs have been added in the state, Gov. Brian Kemp told the Joint House-Senate Budget Committee last week, as he rolled out his budget plan to lawmakers. State Economist Jeffrey Dorfman echoed the governor’s cheer ful, yet cautious, assessment. Kemp chose Dorfman, a University of Georgia professor who has served as an eco nomic adviser to the Gwinnett County Commission, to be state economist last summer. “The Georgia economy is so good we have essentially run out of workers, and it is very hard to grow employment when your state unemployment level is 3.3%,” Dorfman said. Without more employment, it’s hard to get more revenues, and that was the careful line the governor and his econo mist were walking. Since the expected windfall from the federal tax cut failed to come through, state agencies have been forced to make cutbacks in the middle of a booming economy. With 80% of the state budget on auto pilot — the part which pays for Medicaid and public education — and growing, flat revenues mean the cuts have to come from the remaining 20 %. “If some things grow faster than the average, other things need to grow slower or get cut. That’s just how math works,” he said. The way politics works is that when big cuts have to come out of a smaller slice of the pie, there is blowback. Dorfman’s testimony was fol lowed by a dour presentation from Agriculture Commis sioner Gary Black, who said the cuts ordered by the gover nor have forced the elimina tion of critical positions in his department. Rural legislators complained in a front-page AJC story that they are being “killed” by the cuts. It was left to Dorfman in his opening presentation to acknowledge what was already implicit in this year’s budget proposal, that with revenues already scarce, the second quarter-percent cut in the state income tax rate isn’t going to happen. Nor would cutting the rate again attract more businesses to the state, he said. Dorfman said the best things Georgia could do to attract new workers and busi nesses — and if you’ve heard economists speak in forums like this, you’ve prob ably already heard this more than once — are funding education and improv ing the state’s roads, bridges and other infrastructure. “After that, you kind of have to steal your growth from somebody else,” by such means as offering financial incen tives for businesses to locate, he said. One reason it doesn’t always feel like everybody in Georgia is working is that economic progress has been uneven. Another is that there has been a major shift in who is working, with more women on the job, and more men leav ing the available work force. Although the state’s economy is “quite good” and not close to falling into a recession, Dorfman said it is likely to grow slowly or sink over the next nine to 12 months. An interesting facet of this presenta tion, compared to previous economists’ reports over the years, was the grow ing emphasis on China and its impact, for both good and bad, on the state’s economy. As the nation’s 12th most trade-depen- dent state, Georgia has been sensitive to the twists and turns of the U.S.-China trade dispute. Dorfman rated China first among the outside factors that could cause problems for the state’s economy, mentioning in passing the coronavirus outbreak among several things that could go wrong. In the week since he spoke to the budget committees, that concern has grown exponentially. Much of the recent agreement between the two nations has to do with soybeans, which Georgia doesn’t grow much of. But the lifting of Chinese tariffs on pecans and poultry has been good news for the beleaguered farm economy, Dorfman said. The Chinese are keen to trade for Georgia poultry products because Afri can swine flu has killed 200 million pigs in that country. But our ability to meet their appetite for Georgia pecans will be limited for some time by the devastation wrought by Hurricane Michael in 2018. Nearly two years after that storm, Dorf man said there are not enough pecan seedlings in the world to replace the trees that were lost. Tom Baxter is a veteran Georgia journalist who writes for The Saporta Report. TOM BAXTER tom@saporta report.com "So it's online market places you want to pay sales taxes? Whew! I was worried I'd be the one to have to pay them!" JIM POWELL I For The Times 1'^ WstWVfesh.ftstV*itersGwp LISA BENSON I Washington Post Writers Group (The Sttncs Founded Jan. 26,1947 345 Green St., Gainesville, GA 30501 gainesvilletimes.com General Manager Norman Baggs EDITORIAL BOARD Editor in Chief Shannon Casas
