Letter to the editor: Where's our government's common sense?

I found it interesting that all letters in the Trib on Jan. 31 dealt with the lack of logic and common sense in our government.

One letter showed how Westmoreland County plans to spend $3.6 million to build a 12-bed homeless shelter. As the author notes, that’s $300,000 per bed. One could build a four-bedroom house for less than that. What are the county commissioners thinking? It doesn’t take much math to determine that is exorbitant. What’s worse is $3.6 million only helps 12 homeless people.

Another letter showed how the federal government keeps spending more than it takes in year after year, and keeps going further into debt. It is understandable that we may have to spend more than planned to address an emergency, e.g., hurricanes, floods, pandemics, etc. But to continually plan to spend more than revenue is insane.

The third letter showed how flat and regressive taxes impact lower wage earners more than high earners, and asks what is one’s “fair share” of taxes. The author is correct that high earners get a break, but doesn’t mention high earners pay more income tax, while the low earner in his example wouldn’t pay any income tax. In fact, she would probably receive money due to the earned income tax credit. Is that fair?

Our tax laws are full of inequities. Is it fair that a high earner gets a $7,500 tax credit for buying an electric car? The real issue is our tax laws, not individual low/high incomes. Beware of any politician who uses the phrase “… pay their fair share.” He/she is not to be trusted.

Tom Cerra

Latrobe