Letters: E-commerce needs smart trade policy to thrive

Submit your letter to the editor via this form. Read more Letters to the Editor.

E-commerce needs
smart trade policy

Thanks to today’s digital economy, small business owners can reach customers worldwide with a click. E-commerce sales are expected to top $6.42 trillion this year, yet future growth depends on stable, pro-growth trade policies.

Tariffs can help when targeted, but the broad, unpredictable tariffs of this year have hurt small businesses like mine — forcing delays, unstable supply chains and price increases for loyal customers. Constant policy shifts create uncertainty that stifles investment and innovation.

Entrepreneurs thrive on predictability, not volatility. As the holiday season approaches, policymakers should focus on building a stable trade environment where online sellers can plan, grow and compete fairly. Shoppers can also help by choosing independent small businesses with online stores.

With the right mix of smart policy and consumer support, e-commerce can remain a powerful engine of economic opportunity and growth for communities everywhere.

Erik Bigglestone
Berkeley

Trump firings pile on
another controversy

Donald Trump just fired all six members of the Commission of Fine Arts, the agency responsible for reviewing Trump’s D.C. projects.

Trump demolished the East Wing before receiving the necessary approvals for his ballroom. He is not a king. It has been said that the White House is the people’s house and presidents are merely temporary residents. Trump doesn’t get it. He believes he can do whatever he wants.

Who knows what other changes he plans for the White House? Neither the Supreme Court nor the GOP Congress provides any check on him and his impulses. His unchecked actions include sending the National Guard into the streets of American cities and blowing up supposed drug traffickers on small boats in international waters.

The demolished East Wing is just a visible symbol. Too much is happening, and those who should are not applying the brakes.

Darcy Johnson
Brentwood

Congress must cement
health care, food aid

Re: “GOP grapples with voter irritation over rising health care premiums” (Page A3, Oct. 28).

Thanks for the article. I hope constituents of Republicans will irritate them enough that they’ll get serious about improving health care. In Matthew 7:20, Jesus said, “Wherefore by their fruits ye shall know them.” With the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, President Trump and the Republican Congress showed the fruit they value is permanently extending lowered income tax rates — that were to expire this year — and cutting SNAP, Medicaid and other programs for low- and middle-income citizens.

Since Congress made expiring tax cuts permanent, it should do the same for health care and food aid subsidies. Forty years of reducing taxes prove prosperity doesn’t trickle down. Prosperity does, however, bubble up when folks at the bottom can buy the necessities of life and raise healthy, well-fed children. We should all remember that actions speak later than words.

Jim Driggers
Concord

Trump administration
must prop up SNAP

I’m confident that the overwhelming majority of Americans would agree that protecting and nurturing children is a goal of the highest priority. Yet at the expense of more than 41 million Americans’ health, including 16 million children, many Washington politicians are eliminating SNAP (Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program) benefits for the sake of political partisanship and tax cuts for the ultra-wealthy. SNAP is one of the most effective anti-poverty programs in the U.S. It helps families, seniors, veterans and those with disabilities put food on the table.

I urge Sen. Schiff and Sen. Padilla to demand that the Trump administration immediately release emergency USDA funds available to maintain SNAP through November.

Ricardo Narvaez
Concord

SNAP participants
should get payments

Re: “Hunger concerns hitting Bay Area” (Page A1, Oct. 28).

The Trump administration blocks states from using their funds to help SNAP recipients by refusing access to the SNAP distribution system.

Supporting food banks is an excellent idea, but it does not reach those unable to access distribution sites or who do not understand the system.

Perhaps it is time to send direct emergency checks as was done during COVID, this time to those who California knows are enrolled in the SNAP program.

Barbara Morita
El Cerrito