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Letters: Debatable questions - Clinton's climate-change plan, Trump's taxes

ISSUE | CAMPAIGN 2016 Will climate-change plan work? In the first presidential debate ("Showdown," Tuesday), Hillary Clinton showed she was prepared to lead strongly on college education, affordable day care, equal pay, criminal justice reform, and the threat of nuclear weapons. Donald Trump had no good ideas on these key issues, focusing on an isolationist platform on trade and questioning NATO and other alliances.

Donald Trump refrained from bringing upBill Clinton's infidelities.
Donald Trump refrained from bringing upBill Clinton's infidelities.Read morePATRICK SEMANSKY / Associated Press

ISSUE | CAMPAIGN 2016

Will climate-change plan work?

In the first presidential debate ("Showdown," Tuesday), Hillary Clinton showed she was prepared to lead strongly on college education, affordable day care, equal pay, criminal justice reform, and the threat of nuclear weapons. Donald Trump had no good ideas on these key issues, focusing on an isolationist platform on trade and questioning NATO and other alliances.

But neither candidate spent much time on the grave threat of climate change.

Clinton did note her plan for 10 million new jobs, many in solar and wind energy, but she did not elaborate. Trump has called climate change a hoax of the Chinese, to steal our jobs - one more conspiracy. The public needs to know how Clinton's program would work.

We also need to get more information out. For example, the United States has just agreed to work out a new agreement with more than 100 countries to reduce hydrofluorocarbons used in refrigeration. HFCs do more to heat up the Earth, by volume, than the main greenhouse gas we hear about, carbon dioxide.

The technology is there, and Clinton needs to endorse this agreement.

|Edward A. Aguilar, director, Pennsylvania chapter, Coalition for Peace Action, Philadelphia

Clinton resorted to a low blow

Hillary Clinton reached into her dirty bag in Monday's debate and referenced Donald Trump's verbal attacks against women. Trump, because Clinton's family was in the audience - as was his family - gave her a pass on President Bill Clinton's history with women, including a congressional impeachment involving intern Monica Lewinsky, and the payoff of Paula Jones. The Democrats and their candidate showed a complete lack of class.

|Alan Cribb, Tucker, Ga.

Paying taxes is our civic duty

In Monday's debate, Donald Trump quipped that he was "smart" by not paying federal taxes. If he would release his tax returns, we would know whether he has ever paid taxes.

Taxes pay for public services such as education, roads, veterans' services, and countless other vital services that help keep Philadelphia moving forward.

The thousands of workers we represent in

AFSCME District Councils 33, 47, and 1199C are committed to keeping our children safe, our streets clean, our prisons secure, our drinking water clean, and our patients healthy. Because we are charged with improving the common good - using tax dollars wisely and conservatively - we are in the unique situation to understand the importance of taxes.

Failing to pay taxes hits every citizen in the pocketbook. Not paying taxes is not smart; it is irresponsible and unpatriotic. The taxes we all pay keep America great.

|Pete Matthews, AFSCME D.C. 33; Fred Wright,

AFSCME D.C. 47; and Henry Nicholas, National Union of Hospital and Health Care Employees, Philadelphia

No doubt who won the debate

I was dismayed by the headline of Tuesday's editorial, "Debatable outcome." Did you really hear Donald Trump's responses on cyber security and his tax returns and believe there is any doubt who won the debate? The real obstacles to having a meaningful debate were not the questions or the format, but Trump's lack of knowledge or ability. He was uninformed, self-absorbed, and erratic. There was nothing about his performance that showed he is qualified to be president. Hillary Clinton won the debate, plain and simple.

|Dianne Manning, Philadelphia

'Foul' on convention funding

As a registered Democrat, I was appalled that the Philadelphia 2016 Host Committee raised

$85 million to pay for the Democratic National Convention here ("DNC host body lists donors to convention," Wednesday). More disturbing than that bloated amount is that Pennsylvania taxpayers were the largest "donors," through a $10 million grant from the state Department of Community and Economic Development.

The department's mission is to "foster opportunities for businesses to grow and for communities to succeed and thrive in a global economy . . . while assuring transparency and accountability in the expenditure of public funds."

I could find nothing on its website about this grant and how it fostered businesses to grow or Philadelphia to succeed. Where is the transparency?

|Jay Cohen, Flourtown

The largest donor to the Democratic National Convention was the Pennsylvania taxpayer. This is outrageous. Since when should Republicans and independents donate to a different partisan political party? If rich Democrats want to buy a politician, it's their money, but Pennsylvania taxpayers were not given any say about spending $10 million on the Democratic convention. And what will the party do with the surplus - will taxpayers see any of it?

|Karl H. Zimmerman, Catawissa, Pa.