Climate bill would be a killer of American jobs

Climate bill would be a killer of American jobs

EDITOR:

As I watch the debate unfold regarding climate change legislation, I am amazed at the lack of understanding on behalf of our politicians with respect to the economic ramifications if such irresponsible legislation should become law. With one stroke of a pen, this pending legislature could wipe out my business and its 25 jobs right here in the Youngstown area. We, along with our steel industry customers, cannot compete on an international basis when we are fundamentally disadvantaged with yet another tax that we will have to cover in our pricing. We are already struggling to compete on a global basis given our higher wage rates and benefits in this country compared to other nations such as India and China.

The house climate bill, known as Waxman-Markey, is a tax in disguise, nothing more, nothing less. It will harm many small businesses and families like mine. An implicit tax increase is not a favorable solution to climate change — neither is artificially driving up energy costs at the beginning of the high cost winter season.

Many families and businesses are struggling to make ends meet. Tax hikes and higher costs are the thing we need at this time. I call on Sens. George Voinovich and Sherrod Brown to take this into account should a bill come before them in the Senate. Now is the time for our elected officials to stand up for the hard working families of this state by opposing the legislation.

TODD OLSON, owner

BOC Water Hydraulics Inc.

Salem

Obama’s prize sent Cal and Trudy off on a tangent

EDITOR:

As an American, veteran and an independent Republican, I find it amazing that some of my peers, who claim to be more American and patriotic than the rest of us and, by the way, more Christian than everybody else, are mostly hypocrites, xenophobes and mindless minions of the most un-American and anti-democratic goons (teabaggers, birthers, deathers and tenthers) ever assembled on these shores. So their childish response to our president receiving the Nobel Peace Prize did not surprise me, especially after witnessing their ridiculously jubilant reactions after our United States lost our bid for the 2016 Olympics. These people hate our democracy more than they love their idea of country: simply because most Americans rejected their misguided ideology.

For instance, articles by both Cal Thomas and Trudy Rubin, in the Oct. 14 Vindicator, can easily be called jealous rhetoric from conservative critics. And I beg to differ with both Thomas and Rubin on the issue of President Obama having done nothing to earn the Nobel Peace Prize. One has to look no further than the Nobel Prize Committee, who issued the award, then, in an unprecedented move, later defended their choice of President Obama in the strongest of terms as reported on the same day in The Vindicator. Nevertheless, President Obama started to repair and mend riffs between the United States and frankly the rest of the world (our allies included) even before he took office, without by the way, interfering with the remaining term of Bush. Thomas and Rubin either forget or reject efforts by the current administration to rid the world of nuclear weapons, create peace in the middle east and in our own hemisphere and moreover, use diplomacy over aggression. In particular, Obama’s Cairo speech single-handedly nearly changed the leadership in Iran through its own democratic process, because of his outreach to the Iranian youth and its middle-class.

Cal’s article is the worst. Although he begins with a biblical reference and then adds another biblical reference toward the end of his piece, do not be confused by it. It has nothing to do with God, peace, love and our nation’s place in the world. It is actually a scream for more warmongering and name-calling.

Rubin has no point at all. All she claims is that the “symbolic aspirations” that the Nobel Peace Prize represents cannot be obtained because of the actions of others and not President Obama. How does she know what benefit the Nobel Peace Prize and its prestige could bring to the diplomatic processes?

CLYDE BERT WILLIAMS

Austinstown