This is Viewpoints for Monday, July 31, 2017

Reality governing

I would not like to be the White House staffer who has to tell President Trump that he owns health care. Only his most devout loyalist believe his protest that it is the fault of Democrats. I do not know if Obamacare will collapse. In 2018 states will get funds for Medicaid. Low income wage earners will receive tax credits. Republicans control the House. Republicans control the Senate. Republicans control the White House. Therefore, Republicans own health care.

President Trump cannot be blamed for Republican infighting in Congress. For seven years Republican congressmen sent meaningless bills to President Obama. Now they have to govern. They could not resolve their differences to repeal Obamacare. They could not unite to pass a replacement bill.

President Trump has to realize he cannot enact legislation. Blaming gets nothing. He has to be a leader. Because of their many differences, there never will be a Republican only health care bill. There are some Republicans who will support a moderate health insurance plan. There are some Democrats who will support a moderate health insurance plan. President Trump has to get the leadership of both parties together to determine what will it take to resolve this issue. If the leadership balks, he has to bypass them and work with the conscientious members of both parties to enact a bill.

Always one

Question: What would communities be like without developers like Steve Rigby?

Answer: Better off. Think clutter.

Johnson Amendment

If House Republicans succeed in their efforts to gut the Johnson Amendment, it would open the door for big money donors and political interest groups to pressure and manipulate our nation’s churches and charities. Without this amendment, big donors would have free reign to use institutions meant for the social good to funnel unlimited amounts of money into political elections in secret — and get a tax break for doing it. The Johnson Amendment is crucial for upholding the integrity of our churches, our charities and our elections. This is why House Republicans should not gut it.

Insanity in America

It never ceases to amaze me at the insanity that still lies within our nation. Just recently I go into the Pet Smart store here in Macon and one of the first things I spot is a Ball Python snake in an aquarium cage for sale just under $10. For the life of me, I can’t understand why these snakes are even allowed in the country let alone to be sold as pets. Snakes are not pets. They will grow and grow and eventually the owners will let them escape or simply get tired of them and release them into the wild.

We’ve all seen what’s going on in the Everglades by this invasive species that has wreaked havoc on wildlife down there. Now they have a massive problem with not much light at the end of the tunnel.

Why haven’t our legislators passed laws to stop the sale and importation of these reptiles?That’s my story and I’m sticking to it.

Flake news

Mike Smith is to be commended for attempting to catalogue the topics that fans of flake news find so compelling (Letters to the Editor, July 17). However, a few did slip through the cracks such as Bigfoot, the Abominable Snowman, the Loch Ness Monster and the Hollow Earth (the place the UFOs come from — maybe).

Smith notes that he no longer reads print journalism and spends his time “just looking at news pictures/videos” for his information. I trust he understands that these can be faked, and, of course, reading is hard.

By the way, the Dan Rather incident happened when Dan and his producers got “punked” by fake documents regarding a part of George W’s military service. When a search of his records was made later, that segment of his file had been mysteriously lost. (Perhaps another topic for the flake news. It is also a rumor that someone was planning to make a film of George’s military service titled “30 Seconds Over Dallas.”)

I caution Smith not to probe too deeply into these matters since he does not wish to bring himself to the attention of The Illuminati. He concludes his remarks by stating that he is like “David Duchovny’s character on the X-Files” and this is fine to become a TV character since we have a reality TV president.

More on fake news

Mike Smith was right, in his “fake news” comment about Paul McCartney. My sister and I were huge Beatles fans and I remember well back in the ‘60s when a radio DJ announced that Paul McCartney had been killed in a car accident. We, along with fans everywhere, were devastated until we learned it wasn’t true. R&B music was so great during this same time period, I suspect the editor was not paying attention to white pop bands.

General welfare

As time passes, liberals like Terry Thompson keep finding things in the Constitution the framers never intended. If providing health care was intended as part of promoting the general welfare, where are the free public clinics that were immediately opened after the Constitution was ratified?

In their desperate attempt to cast them as hypocrites, liberals try to rub Christian conservatives’ noses in the teachings of Jesus. But, can any liberal please tell me where in scripture Jesus tells us that government is the vehicle for charity? And no, “render unto Caesar” does not cover it.

Liberals constantly portray conservatives as selfish and mean spirited but their idea of following Jesus appears to be to take money from someone’s pocket to support the general welfare of someone else.

Trust?

How can we trust President Trump? I’m 100 percent behind the states that declined to send voter information to the Trump administration. That information could very well be forwarded to Russia. By the way, does Vladimir Putin have something so bad on Trump that he is speculating firing Attorney General Jeff Sessions, Deputy AG Rod Rosenstein and Special Counsel Robert Mueller, and also thinking of pardoning everyone?

This story was originally published July 30, 2017 at 9:00 PM with the headline "This is Viewpoints for Monday, July 31, 2017."