Presidential race; voter ID law; clean energy; good for Cruz; transportation subsidies

Presidential race

Another presidential election year and another Clinton supported by a billionaire running against a popular Republican.

In early 1992, President George H.W. Bush was predicted to beat Democrat Bill Clinton by 56 percent to 44 percent. In steps billionaire Ross Perot, who lures away right-wing Republicans and independents.

In the election, Clinton got 43 percent of the votes, but Bush got only 37.5 percent, with the rest going to Perot.

In 2016 we have a popular Bush (Jeb) against another Clinton (Hillary). In steps another billionaire, Donald Trump, to lure away right-wing Republicans and independents. Will this Clinton win with a below-majority popular vote as her husband did?

Republicans and independents, when you go to the polls, remember: Your votes for Trump will elect Clinton.

Hopefully in the 2016 election, right-wing Republicans and independents will have learned from the 1992 fiasco.

— Jonathan J. Carroll, Arlington

Let’s see if I have this right: Donald Trump is dragging the Republican Party and 16 other candidates to the right, kicking and screaming, while Sen. Bernie Sanders of New Hampshire is pushing Hillary Clinton and the Democratic Party to the left. How droll!

— Mike Kilgore, Forest Hill

The best comment in the Republican debates was by Bobby Jindal: “Immigration without assimilation is an invasion.”

— Jack Russell,

North Richland Hills

With so many contestants, the Republicans should use the Family Feud format for their debates.

The top three answers to every question? 1. Tax cuts. 2. Bomb somebody. 3. Ronald Reagan.

— Gary Kemp, Euless

Good for Cruz

Sen. Ted Cruz has violated a sacrosanct rule of the “good old boys” in the halls of Congress by doing what everyone has been begging someone to do for years: Tell the truth about the “Washington insiders.”

As a result, he’s under attack from the president, the media and the liberals in both parties. The observation that they’re lining up in a united front should make Americans wonder what they’re so afraid of.

If telling the truth is against the rules, where does that leave the voters? No one in the Senate or House knows more about the limits of the Constitution than Cruz. He advocates that government should get out of the way and allow prosperity to flourish in a free economy.

We should thank him for taking a stand for America, jobs and individual liberty. The voters need to question the lies and half-truths coming out of Washington.

Ted Cruz is doing exactly what he promised he would do by representing his constituents and defending the Constitution. He’s making the “in crowd” very nervous.

— Earl Armstrong, Hurst

Voter ID law

What is discriminating about requiring that one of seven government-approved IDs, with a photo, be provided to vote? (See Thursday story “State’s voter ID rules violate law, court says.”)

When I joined the Marines I was 20 years old and too young to vote. I realized how many people have fought and defended our country. I pledged when I turned 21 I would register and vote in every election. I don’t want my vote to be canceled by a person who can’t prove identity.

If you can’t provide a valid ID, how can you live in the U.S.? You’d have to survive with fraudulent documents and mostly cash transactions. If that’s the way they live, they’re not paying all of their taxes or paying into Medicare, flying in a plane, etc.

— Jerry Hibbs, Arlington

Clean energy

The claim by Tom “Smitty” Smith in an Aug. 2 commentary, “Clean energy rules will save us money,” is nonsense, and he knows it. Wind turbine and solar array plants are heavily subsidized by taxpayers and can’t survive in a competitive market.

Spain is a classic example. That country invested heavily in wind and solar power. When its national debt got out of hand, Spain ceased subsidizing wind and solar plants and they went out of business.

Industrial wind turbines are not cost-effective, and they kill lots of birds and bats. Solar power farms are also expensive and impractical.

The many claims of economic competitiveness always ignore subsidies provided to politically sustain renewable power, the costs associated with unreliability and the cost of backup fossil fuel plants.

According to the Energy Information Administration, the cheapest way to generate one kilowatt hour of electricity is to burn natural gas in a combined cycle unit. Nuclear power is 50 percent more expensive, and wind is 88 percent more expensive.

— Cargill Hall, Arlington

Transport subsidies

I’ve read that Dallas/Fort Worth Airport has received several million dollars in federal grants for runway improvements. Great for the airport, and no one seems to complain.

But when Amtrak receives government funding, people complain about handouts to passenger rail.

I wish someone would publish a report about how much federal money goes to all transportation segments, including the use of eminent domain to expand airports. Please break it down by airports, rail, seaports and highways.

Perhaps after it is published, some may not complain as much about money spent on passenger, long-distance, regional and commuter rail.

— Gabrielle Gordon,

Unincorporated Tarrant County

This story was originally published August 7, 2015 at 7:21 PM with the headline "Presidential race; voter ID law; clean energy; good for Cruz; transportation subsidies."