To the Editor:
Re “Frenzied Push by Congress Ends Fears of a Shutdown” (front page, Oct. 1):
Regarding the narrowly averted government shutdown: Is it not past time to end this ridiculous practice? We keep crashing the ship of state onto the shoals every time our legislators cannot finish budget deliberations on time. Given that our nation remains deeply divided, periodic shutdown threats will continue until we do something to stop them.
And yet, as Peter Baker observed (“Outside the Beltway, Dysfunction Induces a Big Public Yawn,” news analysis, Oct. 2), shutdowns are relatively modern, dating from the early 1980s when an attorney general ruled that all nonessential functions must cease when appropriations run out. Well, if that’s the law, it’s stupid, and we should change it.
When my checking account runs dry, I do not instantly become a pauper — a line of credit automatically opens, and I go about my business while solving the problem. Surely, we can devise a system that allows for fierce disagreement and missed deadlines without visiting catastrophe on millions of people.
I suspect that nearly every other nation on earth has already figured this out. But then, we’re always exceptional.
Stephen Bubul
Minneapolis
To the Editor:
The successful effort by cultish G.O.P. House members to strip a short-term funding bill of aid for Ukraine strongly suggests that the political interests of America’s far right are in direct alignment with Vladimir Putin and Russia itself.
While it’s likely that Congress will go back and pass bipartisan legislation that secures more funding for Ukraine, the far right’s vehement opposition to funding the fight against Mr. Putin is chilling, especially when the world is also seeing a rise in Russia-friendly populists in places such as Slovakia.
No matter how challenging day-to-day pocketbook issues may be, no Western nation should ever assume a sense of naïve complacency when it comes to the dangers that Mr. Putin and other would-be autocrats pose for democracy everywhere, including the United States.
Cody Lyon
Brooklyn
To the Editor:
Imagine how a country that believed in responsible governance, unlike ours, which believes in the rule of personality, horse-trading and secret deals, would have handled budget negotiations.
Few of us believed that the last-minute brinkmanship would end in a shutdown; we’ve been here too many times to be that naïve. If members of Congress would do the jobs we’re paying them to do, rather than wasting time playing games of chicken, we’d all be better off.
Barbara J. Kelly
Broomfield, Colo.
To the Editor:
Phew! Another shutdown crisis is averted. The chaos of the past week makes way for the next week of chaos. Will Speaker Kevin McCarthy keep his job? What about funding Ukraine, a democracy threatened by a war criminal who wants autocracy?
The noise keeps crowding out undercurrents so troubling that we will have to pay attention soon. Hate crimes and hate speech increase at alarming levels. Republican-run state governments successfully remove women’s health care rights and our voting rights. They reach into schools and libraries to upend the way our kids are taught and to remove books not to their liking.
Daily chaos in the absence of governing is a feature of this clownish Republican House. Elections give us an opportunity to correct that. What will we do about the undercurrent of hate and the attacks on our freedoms? We can only hope we have the wisdom and the power to change it.
Elliott Miller
Bala Cynwyd, Pa.
To the Editor:
Donald Trump called a government shutdown “the last chance to defund these political prosecutions against me and other patriots.”
Though the government shutdown was averted at the last minute, not only was it an attempt to “burn it all down” by the MAGA extremists, it was yet another obstruction of justice “Hail Mary pass” attempted by the four-time indicted former president.
This travesty must stop. The country has been damaged enough by Mr. Trump’s nefarious ways and his pact with the extremist MAGA members of Congress.
If the end game is to eventually shut down and kneecap our constitutional democracy by attempting to destroy its governmental structures, the bad guys seem to be gaining ground.
Genevieve Harris-Fraser
Orange, Mass.
To the Editor:
Re “McCarthy Risked His Post to End Shutdown Impasse” (front page, Oct. 2):
Kevin McCarthy will never make my list of “profiles in courage,” but he might qualify for “valor in the face of chaos” or “pragmatists who took risks.”
Whatever the outcome of challenges to his speakership, I will say good things about his willingness to cooperate enough with the Democrats to secure a budget resolution.
He may not continue as speaker, but he deserves a footnote in this era for his willingness to defy the far right in his party and not let the nation completely down amid the current polarized morass.
Dave Pasinski
Fayetteville, N.Y.
To the Editor:
À la Vice President Mike Pence, when Speaker Kevin McCarthy finally does what’s best for our nation — eight months after swapping his integrity for his position — I hope we resist any urge to lionize him.
Peter Keating
Charlestown, R.I.
To the Editor:
Kevin McCarthy’s plight with the crazy fringe of the Republican Party is like that of an inexperienced father who has been left alone to look after the new babies. He wants to calm them down. But they just want to kick and scream, and shake their cribs.
Robert Schaffer
Stamford, Conn.
James Dolan, Think Big in New York, Not Just in Las Vegas
To the Editor:
Re “James Dolan’s Moonshot” (Sunday Business, Sept. 24):
I read with envy Katherine Rosman’s profile of James Dolan and his ambitious new project in Las Vegas: an entertainment complex within a giant sphere. I applaud Mr. Dolan’s vision, and wish him every success in that distant desert city.
Why envy? Because I would love it if Mr. Dolan had similarly ambitious dreams here in New York City, his hometown, where he owns Madison Square Garden. We could use a modern arena to replace that aging dowager — perhaps even in the shape of a giant sphere. Why not?
Mr. Dolan recently lost his bid to keep his company’s special permit to operate M.S.G. in perpetuity; instead, he was granted five years by New York’s City Council. But why is he even waging this fight?
Madison Square Garden is among the oldest sports venues in the nation, and its presence atop the squashed remnant of Penn Station forever damns those who pass through it to commutes of misery.
Seize the moment, James — you can build it bigger and better here, no need to go west, and I bet you could find half a dozen development partners just chomping at the bit to get involved.
And you can move it. Madison Square Garden has moved before — obviously, it is no longer on Madison Square. How about to the site of the old Hotel Pennsylvania?
So, James: Do for New Yorkers what you are doing for Las Vegas and those who visit it. Give us a brand-new arena that we all deserve. Think big — big and round.
Robert Yaro
New York
The writer is former president of the Regional Plan Association.
