Close the loopholes and cut the spending
Close the loopholes and cut the spending
When I read the article about our government closing tax loopholes as a means to raise more revenue, I thought our government has finally come to a sensible solution. Of course, finding the loopholes is really a good idea but if it’s to justify more spending, it’s pretty useless.
Where is the common sense in government? I was always taught to only spend what I make and not to overextend. It’s when we spend money that we don’t have in our account that we get into deep trouble.
I guess the U.S. has always borrowed to extend it’s debt ceiling and that has become just an excuse to spend more and more. Unless our government and our representatives stop supporting tax money that is not there, we will never be out of debt.
Colleen Miyose-Wallis
Kailua-Kona
Even physicians
worry about GMOs
This letter is in regard to Michael Shintaku’s letter to the editor discussing “organic products” and their comparison to genetically modified crops. There are many issues with GM crops that Shintaku does not discuss that add to the validity of Bill 113, while he goes so far as to make statements that are false, such as “Every credible scientific organization that has looked at this agrees that transgenic crops are as dangerous/safe as their nontransgenic counterparts.”
This is from the American Academy of Environmental Medicine, “The American Academy of Environmental Medicine today released its position paper on Genetically Modified foods stating that ‘GM foods pose a serious health risk’ and calling for a moratorium on GM foods. Citing several animal studies, the AAEM concludes ‘there is more than a casual association between GM foods and adverse health effects’ and that ‘GM foods pose a serious health risk in the areas of toxicology, allergy and immune function, reproductive health, and metabolic, physiologic and genetic health.’”
The AAEM calls for:
c A moratorium on GM food, implementation of immediate long term safety testing and labeling of GM food.
c Physicians to educate their patients, the medical community and the public to avoid GM foods.
c Physicians to consider the role of GM foods in their patients’ disease processes.
c More independent, long-term scientific studies to begin gathering data to investigate the role of GM foods on human health.
“Multiple animal studies have shown that GM foods cause damage to various organ systems in the body. With this mounting evidence, it is imperative to have a moratorium on GM foods for the safety of our patients’ and the public’s health,” said Amy Dean, PR chair and board member of AAEM.
“Physicians are probably seeing the effects in their patients, but need to know how to ask the right questions,” said Jennifer Armstrong, president of AAEM. “The most common foods in North America which are consumed that are GMO are corn, soy, canola and cottonseed oil.”
The AAEM’s position paper on genetically modified foods can be found at aaemonline.org/gmopost.html.
Ben Cohn
Holualoa