Letters: Who is paying for the climate crisis?; Mastriano would force government mandate

Who is paying for the climate crisis?

According to NOAA, 2021 marked the seventh consecutive year in which the nation experienced 10 or more separate billion-dollar disasters.

The annual number of billion-dollar climate crisis events is rising. The past two summers brought two catastrophic events. Hurricane Ida and Hurricane Laura together caused more than $100 billion in damage and killed at least 138 people.

The Federal Emergency Management Agency helps with disasters with an annual budget of $22 billion. The National Guard is frequently called to help as they recently did with flooding in Jackson, Mississippi. The Guard’s annual budget of $18.4 billion is paid by the Department of Defense.

These agencies are funded by our taxes. You and I pay for the rising costs of climate disasters even if they are not happening here.

To curb the rising number of these disasters, we must quit fossil fuels. A price on carbon is the quickest way to do that. Citizens Climate Lobby proposes a fee on carbon at its source with the money from that fee going to each household to offset our expenses of transiting from fossil fuels to green energy.

The recent Inflation Reduction Act reduces the cost of buying electric cars and heat pumps. Any short-term costs will be offset by reducing our use of fossil fuels. This will also curb the frequency of climate disasters and save tax dollars.

Mastriano would force government mandate

Government has no business restricting citizens’ freedom to make private medical decisions. Doug Mastriano, a state senator, opposes abortion under all circumstances. He stated explicitly, in a primary debate, that if elected governor, he supported a ban on abortion from “conception,” adding, “I don’t give way for exceptions, either,” referring to exceptions for cases of rape, incest, or a medical emergency in which a mother’s life is at risk.

Pennsylvania voters care about a lot of issues — the economy, education, climate change — but Mastriano’s radical stance put those issues on the backburner for a lot of Pennsylvanians who don’t want government interfering with women’s health and women’s lives.

We as citizens want government taking care of our roads, public safety, public transportation and education — and addressing the rising cost of living due to COVID, supply chain issues and climate change. Don’t let politicians take away the freedom to make your personal health care decisions.

Doug Mastriano would force everyone in Pennsylvania to agree with his extreme views on women’s health, perhaps including HB 1095, proposed legislation that would impose a mandatory life sentence for “Homicide of an Unborn Child.”

Mind your own business, Doug Mastriano. Voters in Kansas spoke loud and clear: They will not tolerate extreme bans on abortion — and neither will Pennsylvanians. If you readers agree, preserve our reproductive freedoms by voting for Democratic candidates in November.

Danger of MAGA Republicans

Just when some of us thought things could not get more bizarre, our former president, Donald Trump, has “demanded” that he be named president or that a new election be held.

How much more evidence is needed to have him declared incompetent? In the old days, he would likely have been committed because back then we had mental hospitals.

I used to have respect for many Republican politicians because they had some integrity. Where are these people now? There are a few of them such as Liz Cheney and Georgia’s Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger. While I don’t agree with many of their political beliefs, I do appreciate that they can separate fact from fiction.

There are those who believe we are about to have a civil war. They might well be correct. We have the likes of Senator Lindsey Graham, hinting, no, actually implying, that if Trump is indicted for possible prosecution, there will be uprisings. Thanks, Senator Graham, for assisting in the probability of that happening. Words do mean something. Perhaps, he is channeling Joseph Goebbels.

It is past time that all rational people in our nation step forward and put a stop to this cult that has taken over the minds and ambitions of the MAGA Republicans. We need to return to a nation of laws and law abiding politicians.