Sen. Burr is hiding behind his staff. NC constituents must demand an explanation.

Sen. Richard Burr

Sen. Richard Burr has apparently put his financial interest ahead of our country’s well-being.

So far, he has hidden behind his staff and refused to comment directly as to why he painted the coronavirus as very serious to top contributors while downplaying it to the rest of us. He came out of Senate Intelligence Committee meetings spooked enough to dump up to $1.5 million of stock.

We are paying a heavy price for Republicans’ lies, greed and incompetence.

Have some downtime today? Contact Burr’s office and demand a response.

Mark Slattery, Raleigh

Prosecute Burr

Sen. Burr sells up to $1.5 million in stock before the coronavirus news goes public and the market starts its tumble. This is textbook insider trading. Didn’t Martha Stewart go to jail over insider trading? This is a despicable act by Burr. He has abandoned ethics, morality, honesty, integrity. He betrayed us. He should be tried by a jury of his peers.

Robert L. Hussey, Wake Forest

NC’s top leaders

The current epidemic has starkly illustrated how crazy we are here in North Carolina to have a governor and lieutenant governor putting out different messages about public safety. It is time to fix our state constitution and elect these two leaders as a team. This is a time when we certainly need our top state officials to be working together, sharing the load, providing consistent leadership. Let’s stop paying a salary to a lieutenant governor with almost nothing to do but cause trouble and run for higher office.

Becky Harper, Cary

No check for me

Congress is being asked to give $1,000 to every adult taxpayer and $500 for every child. To this I say, “Please don’t send me money.”

I and millions of Americans do not want or need the handout as our income has not been affected during this coronavirus crisis. Millions of federal, state, county and city government employees are working and have sick pay if needed. Millions more working for private businesses have sick pay. Military personnel are taken care of. Retirees aren’t affected. The focus should remain on helping small businesses stay afloat, increasing food stamps, and unemployment insurance for those who do not have sick pay.

Tax rebate checks are not a good way to stimulate the economy – that will happen on its own once the virus crisis passes and we flock back to restaurants, shops, theaters and hotels. And it can happen without incurring $150 billion in debt.

Marlene Greer, Elizabeth City

Trump’s success

The Forum writer who suggested our president is not suited for the job as he is a businessman and is only concerned with profit and not the general welfare of the people, could not be more wrong.

How could the best economy since the ’90s, lowest unemployment in 50 years, and rising wages not be great accomplishments that helped everyone?

When Bill Bell, the mayor hailed for Durham’s economic and cultural transformation, was lauded upon his 2017 retirement, a former Durham Chamber CEO said: “The “single most unappreciated value of Mayor Bell was that this was not a politician that became mayor. It was a businessman who became a mayor and learned how to become a politician.” Hmm.......

Susanne Hooe, Cary

A delayed response

In the aftermath of the attack on Pearl Harbor, President Roosevelt organized the War Production Board that converted industrial production to production of war goods. If in January, in addition to closing our borders, the government had taken similar action to ensure that hospital protective garb, masks and ventilators were given the highest priority among U.S. manufacturers, would we be in the precarious position we are today?

The Trump administration touts the closing of borders as the evidence it was on top of the coronavirus problem early, and suggests that this somehow reflects positively on their handling of this crisis despite DNI predictions of a looming pandemic for years. Unfortunately, when all you have is a xenophobic, anti-immigration hammer, every problem looks like a nail.

Margaret Magnani, Cary

Small government?

Hundreds of Republican legislators signed Grover Norquist’s pledge to oppose all tax increases as a way to get the federal government down to a size where it can be, “drowned in a bathtub.” Years of this Republican, “small-government” philosophy has starved many federal agencies.

We are now in the midst of a crisis with citizens and businesses looking to the government for rational decisions, guidance and help. The slowness and inadequacy of the government’s response is causing additional illness, loss of life and financial stress. This highlights the need for an adequately-funded government.

The USA is continually experiencing challenges which cannot be properly dealt with by a government that has been “drowned in a bathtub.” We must all accept that, for our well-being, our country requires a big government and sufficient taxes to support it.

Thomas McKee, Cary

This story was originally published March 20, 2020 at 3:31 PM.