Every government shutdown in the past three decades occurred when the Republicans had control of the U.S. House of Representatives.
Some shutdowns were extremely hard on the economy. We now appear to be on the verge of another one because Congress may not be able to pass the 12 appropriations bills that fund government operations.
Members of the far-right House Freedom Caucus are refusing to honor the agreement they came to during May’s debt ceiling deal, and they have made it their priority to impose extreme, devastating cuts that could weaken national security and increase costs for working and middle-class families in order to protect and extend tax breaks skewed to the wealthy and large corporations.
There is no reason to shut down the government, but some Republicans seem to be such agents of chaos that they feel they need to steer us into an economic crisis that would impose additional hardships and turmoil on the American people. Yes, the Freedom Caucus is holding Speaker Kevin McCarthy hostage, and his four-vote majority dooms him to an impossible choice between losing his position as speaker or behaving irresponsibly.
Is McCarthy up to the task of averting a government shutdown? I certainly hope so.
Rosemary Blumberg, Plantation
No more artificial turf
Fort Lauderdale is where so many people come for nature, sun and beauty.
It makes me feel sad when I increasingly see artificial turf being used in so many areas of the city, such as down on the beach, in parks and around restaurants. Now they’re going to be putting it above the Las Olas bridge area.
It is so unattractive, especially because it’s fake. In a city of this size, we should be able to keep a small patch of real grass alive. Spending so much money in downtown Fort Lauderdale and basically making it a concrete jungle, you would think that at least we could afford real grass. Please stop putting artificial turf in our parks and using it to beautify areas.
It doesn’t do that. It just makes it unnatural, ugly and sad.
Diane Miller, Plantation
No gender-specific titles
It is time now to remove gender appellations to titles.
The references to chairman or chairwoman can simply be resolved by calling the person in that role the chair, absolving any need to determine gender before speaking or writing.
Similarly in my industry, which is HVAC, we are striving to change journeyman to simply journey level. We don’t call an apprentice by a specific gender and we could as easily reference the next level of accomplishment without the suffix of “man.”
I also suggest that the title used by those who are serving in the U.S. House of Representatives, who presently use “Congressman” and “Congresswoman,” be updated to the gender-neutral title of “Representative” to correspond with the title of Senator used in the U.S. Senate.
Although there are still a lot of references to male nurse or female pilot, it seems that a bit of culture pressuring could normalize the appropriate gender-less-ness of those roles.
Teresa Freeman, Hollywood
A political charade
I’m just wondering when we’re going to know who we as voters can support for president in the 2024 general election.
Joe Biden is too old and Donald Trump will be a convicted felon by then.
When will the charade be over?
Anyone?
Fernando Sereix, Cooper City