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OPINION
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gainesvilletimes.com
Wednesday, January 29, 2020
Shannon Casas Editor in Chief | 770-718-3417 | scasas@gainesvilletimes.com
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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
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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!"
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