Fix Tennessee First - And Response (2)

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Unfortunately, many people do not understand civic matters very well. If you want to offer a tongue lashing to the top politician controlling the budget for the city of Chattanooga Police Department and its fleet of patrol cars, please call City Mayor Berke. If you want to “yank a knot in the tail” of the top politician controlling jail funding, please call Hamilton County Mayor Coppinger. These two mayors create the budgets.

Before bashing Senator Corker, you need to understand Senator Corker is a senator at the Federal level. He has no control over your county or city complaints. In your open letter to Senator Corker, you stated, Senator Corker, “You are in Washington, D.C. hashing about national issues. Maybe that is your job as a senator.” Well, yes that is his job.

Please understand the federal offices for all United States senators are located in Washington, D.C. Senator Corker was elected by Tennesseans to fill the Senate seat in Washington D.C. If Senator Corker was not present in Washington, D.C. he would be derelict in his duty. The job description for Senator Corker and all other U.S. senators includes, among other things, monitoring and giving input into such matters as the federal budget and national security.  For Senator Corker to restrict his input on such matters would be another sign of dereliction of duty. He is chairman of a powerful committee that oversees such matters.

You are correct about one thing. “Taxes are out of orbit.” If you live in Chattanooga, your life is impacted by three levels of government. Since you have three levels of government, you are taxed by three levels of government. These levels are called city government, county government and federal government. To complain productively about it, you need to know where to find the politicians responsible for voting to raise your taxes.

If you want to attack the top politicians who raised your city taxes this year, look no further than City Mayor Berke and the City Council members who voted for Mayor Berke’s tax increase. By the way, those taxes pay for city streets and patrol cars.

If you want to attack the top politicians who raised your county taxes this year, look no further than County Mayor Coppinger and the Hamilton County Commissioners who voted for Mayor Coppinger’s tax increase. Those taxes pay for the jail and workhouse that house prisoners. If you want a larger jail to solve overcrowding, taxes must be used to pay the construction bills. If you care about schools, the taxes pay for schools.

If you want to attack the top politicians who are responsible for raising or lowering your federal taxes, feel free to contact Senator Corker. He is one of two U.S. senators for Tennessee senators who will have an opportunity to vote on federal tax reform.

You want the United States to stay out of North Korea and Iran. Most people are more worried about what’s coming out of North Korea and Iran, not what’s going in. If you have not been closely following the news, you may have missed the fact that North Korea’s fearless leader (aka Rocket Man) has lobbed missiles over the heads of  U.S. allies and threatened to bomb the U.S. territory of Guam. If Kim will cease firing his missiles and Iran can keep its nuclear missiles out of the skies, then I’m sure Senator Corker would be most delighted.

Deborah Scott

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I read Jack Varner's letter criticizing Senator Corker and it is pretty evident that he never took a Civics or Political Science course. There are four levels of government; city, county, state and federal.  About 95 percent of his complaints would be at the city and/or county level and the remaining five percent at the state level. Maybe he missed Senator Corker's title, chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee or possibly he thinks Mr. Corker is still mayor.