Statewide solution needed; regarding the debt; on the border

Solution needed

Each day, consumers are getting trapped by payday loans with APRs that can reach 500 percent or more (“The Debt Trap,” Feb. 8).

Some 22 Texas cities have seen the need to do something about these harmful lending practices.

Unfortunately, Fort Worth and Arlington have been sitting on the sidelines.

While I don’t agree with your position that cities are powerless to enact meaningful reform, I do agree that it’s time for the Legislature to revisit the issue and seek a statewide solution.

In the meantime, please keep reporting on this important economic issue.

We need to be reminded of the faces and the stories of hardworking families in Tarrant County and elsewhere whose search for a short-term economic solution ends in a long-term debt trap.

— Billie Waite,

Fort Worth

Regarding the debt

To those who continue to mislead others regarding President Obama’s contribution to our national debt:

The U.S. government fiscal year runs Oct. 1-Sept. 30.

Accordingly, President Bush’s last budget year ended Sept. 30, 2009.

Many people consistently attribute the massive end-of-term Bush debts to Obama, who was elected in 2008 and took office in January 2009.

In Bush’s last fiscal year, the debt went from $10.025 trillion (Oct. 1, 2008) to $11.910 trillion (Sept. 30, 2009), an increase of $1.885 trillion.

Obama’s latest budget projecting a deficit of $483 billion seems modest by comparison.

The last president to preside over a budget surplus was President Clinton.

Notice how Obama had the fortitude to actually propose how we might pay for his budget expenditures?

That’s a far cry from the unfunded mandates of the Bush era (No Child Left Behind and the Medicare drug program).

— David Sanderford,

Granbury

On the border

Why should the Texas Legislature debate a border plan?

Why should the National Guard be deployed to the Texas border?

I ask these questions because neither of these is actually needed to keep illegal immigrants from streaming across the border.

All that is really needed is to enforce the federal employment laws that are already on the books!

If officials would clamp down on those who hire illegal immigrants, 90 percent of the problem would go away without having to spend additional millions.

So why isn’t this being done?

As with most problems facing this country, politicians would rather spend your tax dollars than offend someone who might be a campaign contributor.

— Edward Lindsay,

Fort Worth

This story was originally published February 16, 2015 at 4:52 PM with the headline "Statewide solution needed; regarding the debt; on the border."