I would like to respond to two letters recently appearing in The Monitor. The first was by Jose C. Coronado, who lists all the things wrong with forgiving student loans (June 2). I agree with much of it. What he doesn’t mention is teenagers who were sucked in by unscrupulous online “universities” that totally misled their students. But it doesn’t stop there; other “educators” like cosmetology schools, HVAC and auto repair schools take their money and provide little.
Even more mature people were exploited by such fakes as the TrumpUniversity.
Don’t get me wrong — many legitimate places do teach employable subjects, but they are jobs that are nowhere near the three-figure category. Even many teachers with four-year college degrees have to struggle to make ends meet.
Now, if you want to talk about unfair, why is it that Donald Trump, Elon Musk and many others who make millions a year do not pay much federal income tax?
The second is a letter by Melvin L. Thompson (June 2) (June 5). The Keystone pipeline never was going to deliver oil to the U.S. It was to transport it from Canada to the Gulf of Mexico for shipment overseas! According to the National Reserve Defense Council, “Both the Obama and Trump administrations concluded that the Keystone XL pipeline would not have lowered gasoline prices. NRDC and its partners also found the majority of the oil would have been sent overseas.”
Also, there really isn’t much any president can do about fuel prices. Biden did release oil from the reserves, but that is about all he can do.
Oil is sold on the commodities market. During the pandemic, when few people were traveling, the demand for oil dropped and so did prices. Now that people are making up for lost trips, demand is up and so are the prices. This has been compounded by the fact and many oil producers shut down less-profitable wells and it takes time to get them up and running or especially to drill new wells.
Of course, all of this impacts what ever goods are transported by roads and hence, inflation.
What the president could do is reduce the federal tax on gas but, just like Gov. Abbott won’t get rid of state taxes on gas, reduced taxes means less spending on road infrastructure — and we would soon be complaining about unsafe bridges and terrible roads.
Am I better off than I was two years ago? No, but the entire world is suffering from the same impact, essentially due to the pandemic.
Gerard Pahl
Edinburg
Gonzalez
criticized
This is in regard to Vicente Gonzalez’s recent letter where he is writing on “behalf of our community” (June 5). Surely he must be joking.
Then he’s critical of the Republican delegation that comes to the RGV in response to the lifting of Title 42. What about his Democratic delegation coming down to Donna for fact-finding missions and to minimize the overwhelming of Customs and Border Protection.
His website mentions national security and combating criminal elements crossing the border, to mention a few things. Talk is cheap when it comes to Gonzalez. His actions say a different thing. No support for CBP, inaction over border crossings, no support for the cities or Hidalgo county that have to provide support for people crossing without authorization or reimbursement.
No, Vicente Gonzalez, your actions reveal there is no “our community.” There is only us and you.
Macedonio Lopez
Edinburg
