Cotton, Romney on board to promote more poverty
Sens. Tom Cotton and Mitt Romney have proposed a $10-per-hour minimum wage to be phased in by 2025. That wage would produce an income of $20,800 for a full-time worker working 52 weeks a year.
The Department of Health and Human Services in 2020 set a minimum wage of $12.60 (for an annual total of $26,200 if a wage earner worked 40 hours a week for 52 weeks) to merely reach the level of poverty for a family of four.
The senators' proposal leaves a gap (in four years time, that would be wider) of $5,400. In four years' time, it would be even wider.
The $10 per hour wage would leave that family of four depending on government services for adequate support.
Let's say it like it is: The bill should rightly be called the Cotton-Romney Poverty and Government Assistance Bill.
Margaret Holcomb
Fayetteville
Republicans still spout 'fake' ideas, theories
Even with FBI Director Chris Wray testifying that Antifa and left-wing radicals didn't participate in the Capitol insurrection, 194 so-called Republicans still espouse fake news and ideas.
And where do our illustrious Congress representatives stand? Why, with Qanon, of course.
I found it interesting that Tom Cotton couldn't even vote to recommend Judge Garland for attorney general, because Garland was too honorable and ethical. Tom was looking for a more dishonorable person like the ones he supported for Trump nominees.
Right-wing Republicans actually think that what Newt Gingrich proposed in 1973, to destroy the Democratic party at all costs, is going to prevail in today's world. T'aint so, McGee. The days of wine and roses as a racist, seditionist Republican will have their sun burnout, one way or the other. As opposed to common folk living in a past world, where they couldn't read and write, "common folk" today does not mean "ignorant." And people like Ted Cruz, Josh Hawley and Cotton could be well-served running pig farms, since they enjoy the mud.
Bud Hanks
Fayetteville
'Gestapo' attacking residents of Rogers
The city of Rogers has taken it upon itself to form a Cleanliness Gestapo who go around town in the middle of the winter in the middle of a pandemic and cite entire streets for code violations that don't exist. We have had political candidates come down our street in the last few months and they didn't see any code violations. I wrote the city and the police demanding a written apology for sending threatening, ambiguous letters giving only seven days to clean up already clean properties. The city of Rogers couldn't be bothered to respond to all the letters written by people on our street.
Officials in the police department, which now oversees code enforcement, changed their story twice and the chief of police made it clear he didn't give a rat's hiney if old people and infirm people were out in the cold doing their bidding. Nor did they care that they racially profiled our Latino neighbors by going above and beyond by citing them for violations in their backyards, too. You can't see their backyard except by trespassing on their neighbor's property.
I never did get an apology and no one ever came back to say our properties were now acceptable.
Rogers needs to do what they used to: Have a clean up month when the trash company guarantees they will pick up large items. None of this threatening people!
Don't move to Rogers if you don't like your life being micromanaged by other people. We used to have a live-and-let-live town. It's not nice to live here anymore.
Allyssa Riley
Rogers