Letters: Jim Jordan settling personal vendettas

Americans deserve better

So, Rep. Jim Jordan wants to put forth legislation related to the border, big tech censorship of lies, and Department of Justice and FBI investigations into matters involving misconduct by some members of Congress and past presidents.

Jordan asked why the Democrats did not solve the border problem when they had the House, Senate and White House earlier.

Well Jim, why didn’t the Republicans solve it when they had Congress and Donald Trump in charge?

You didn’t solve anything, did you?

And probably won’t do anything useful for the nation going forward. It seems all you can do is bad mouth someone else.

Plus, you don’t like that social media platforms hold the GOP accountable for lies about elections and you want to censor them, or you don’t want the FBI and DOJ maybe looking into who in government took part in the Jan. 6 insurrection?

Why don’t you check on your colleagues buying defense stocks days before Russia invaded Ukraine, or do you agree with Marjorie Taylor Greene when she said “War and rumor of war is incredibly profitable and convenient?"

People elected Congress to get the nation running, not for some personal vendetta against anyone who doesn’t agree with you. So Jim, get to work and quit grandstanding.

John Dirina, Columbus

We need a renter's tax credit

It was disheartening to read the well-researched Feb. 20 article "Housing voucher program failing many."

While the concept started out offering hope of assistance to low-income renters, the fact that only one in four people who qualify for a voucher actually gets one and may wait years for it is a disgrace.

More:Class-action lawsuit against Columbus Metropolitan Housing Authority over vouchers dismissed

Even more upsetting is the dehumanizing treatment of tenants described in the article. It's hard enough to be threatened with the loss of one's home without being treated so callously.

A new idea for aid to low-income renters is using the tax code to assist with the high cost of rent; much like how homeowners are helped by a mortgage interest tax break.

A renter's tax credit would supplement the difference between a person's rent and 30% of their income (which is what housing is supposed to cost so people have money left for food, utilities and other needs) It would go directly to the renter on a monthly basis and eliminate all the red tape, waiting, humiliation, stigma and insecurity attached to Housing Choice Vouchers. 

There is no one thing that will fix this overwhelming and growing affordable housing crisis but increasing the affordable housing stock over the next few decades and enacting a change in the tax code to immediately give some relief would be two steps that would go a long way toward relief.

A renter's tax credit should be seriously considered by our legislators as a way to right some long standing wrongs in seeking the American Dream of having secure housing.

Virginia M. Vogts, Columbus

Don't give our water to the west

I write today to help sound the alarm about our water crisis.

Water, one of our most precious natural resources has been so abused and misused that the situation out West is not sustainable.

The Colorado River is siphoned off to maintain the lives of some 40 million people.

With the Southwestern border collapse, this number dramatically increases every day. Immigrants coming in from virtually all corners help drink, flush and drain this priceless commodity from Washington to Mexico and California to New Mexico.

The recent increase in rainfall and snowpacks in the west are only a stopgap happenstance. The on-going drought situation there has been known and slightly-heard alarm bells heard for many years. But between area greed and politics little has been done.

More recently we see messages from "experts" suggesting obtaining water from more remote sources, ie. Mississippi River or Great Lakes.

Opinion:You can't fish through an 'algal blooms.' Threat about more than drinking water

Already, there have actually been overland shipments from Kansas. This gives us some idea how acute the shortage has become.

When one is confronted with the degree of dependence on the Colorado River and the bare walls of canyons not exposed for decades and the small number of feet the Lake Mead water has to drop to lack enough volume to generate electric power for Los Angeles and  Las Vegas, the problem comes into focus.

What to do?

I suggest one thing NOT to do. That is to give in to demands for sharing the water from Old Man River or The Great Lakes.

Even if the technological and financial problems could be solved, the fact remains that the westerners not only do not deserve it, but we will need it just as much when the time comes. And it is coming.

A step in the right direction would be a plan which is in the works now.

The western states are making the effort with a concrete plan- although the liberals in California are refusing to flush less and use less water for irrigation. This plan along with closing of the border may help use fewer gallons from the Colorado.

Have they really considered that fewer people drinking and flushing will help?

Hopefully, they can set it right.

Don Denton, Westerville

Stop kicking the Medicare and Social Security cans

Although everyone knows that Medicare and Social Security systems are heading toward insolvency, politicians on both sides of the aisle have declared and promised that they will keep the status quo.

Politicians are just kicking the can down the road in order to avoid making hard decisions that may scare and alienate senior citizens. However, these delays will make the problem harder to handle in the future and sooner or later they have to face the issue.

Our leaders should make it clear that reforming the system doesn’t necessarily mean inflicting pain on senior citizens. If the reform is done right, we would avoid insolvency, increase efficiency and eliminate fraud.

George A. Elmaraghy, Columbus

More:How to submit a letter to the editor for The Columbus Dispatch

What a waste of money

It hard to believe that our city leaders are putting $15 million into a perfectly good fountain.

Why? Why?Why?

What a waste of a lot of dollars.

How about putting that $15 million into affordable housing for our citizens? That is where many real people have the real need.

Rose Hart, Columbus

Gut feeling shouldn't be a factor in child custody

In the Feb. 16 letter "A judge should not just ‘go with their gut'," Bill Shaul and Robin Harbage rightly point out the risks of simply relying on judges to “go with their gut” in criminal cases.

There are similar risks involved with such broad discretion in child custody cases. Under current Ohio law, judges and magistrates are to decide custody of children of divorced/separated parents in the best interest of the child.

This is a very desirable goal, to be sure. But it boils down to “go with your gut” about what’s in the best interest of the child.

Ohio statutes provide a laundry list of factors to be considered in determining the best interest of a child — ORC Sec. 3109.04(F)(1) — , but this list does little to guide different courts to the same outcomes when presented cases with the same fact patterns. In effect, current Ohio law says, consider all these factors and then “go with your gut."

One problem is that judges’ guts go in very different directions. That is obvious from the diversity of the local parenting time rules.

Some courts begin with a presumption that children benefit from substantially equal time in the care of each of their fit and loving parents. Most, though, are stuck in a 1950s mindset where children are thought to benefit most from being with one of their parents only every other weekend and one evening a week.

Children’s relationships with their parents should not rest on the gut feelings of whoever happens to be assigned as the judge in their case.

Fortunately, there is a fix under consideration. Representatives Rodney Creech and Marilyn John have introduced House Bill 14, which will create a presumption that a child’s best interest is served by both parents being equally involved in day-to-day child rearing.

Courts will still have discretion to deviate from this starting point when there are good grounds for doing so, of course.

The effect of House Bill 14 would be to provide more guidance to the courts about a child’s best interest—guidance that’s based on over 40 years of research.

It will make it less likely that a child’s relationship with each fit and loving parent will depend on a mere “gut feeling” of a judge.

Don Hubin, Chair, National Parents Organization, Columbus

This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: Letters: Jim Jordan looking to settle personal vendettas