US tax reform is ill-timed

Perhaps one of your readers can help me understand the logic behind tax reform that would include massive tax reductions for the very rich at a time when, for several years, the income and wealth gap between middleincome Americans and the most wealthy has been increasing.

I also cannot understand how tax cuts for the most wealthy will encourage more investment money for manufacturing and services unless the free market demands it. How will benefits trickle down to people who will have minimal additional money to make purchases? Who will purchase these increases in goods and services?

Conservative philosophy, as I understand it, is to decrease federal involvement in people’s lives and encourage decisions on taxing and spending to be made at the local and state level. If people are going to be taxed twice by paying federal taxes on the taxes paid to local and state levels, is this the new conservative philosophy?

I wonder if the huge deficits generated by the GOP’s proposed tax reform will be an excuse to make further cuts in federal programs and services, such as Social Security and Medicare.

Jack Dauterman Columbus shooting represented a “mental health problem at the highest level.” And yet in recent months the Republicans in Congress, supported by our president and vice president, signed a law allowing mentally ill people to purchase guns, overturning a previous ban. The hypocrisy is staggering.

Edward Krauss Columbus Succeeds Act (ESSA).

Legislative oversight and involvement is appropriate and welcome, but having direct authority to authorize a state’s educational plan — plans every state is required to submit under ESSA — is excessive and likely unhelpful. Beyond that, it’s entirely unusual. Ohio would become an outlier among the states, injecting the political complications of the legislature into a process that is already established.

This is better suited for our state board which is made up of elected and appointed individuals. Let them do their jobs. Legislators should certainly be a part of contributing to state education plans. However, to actively be involved in both the development and approval is concerning.

This is about politics, not policy. We must protect our students by ensuring their futures are not ensnared and encumbered by politicians who want to score political points.

As a father of young students, a pastor and a community leader, my goal is to respectfully offer an encouraging voice of accountability to ensure that these plans are not influenced by politics but are clearly focused on students without obstruction.

The Rev. Juan Rivera Executive Board Member National Hispanic Christian Leadership Conference Lead pastor New Life Church Poland