Contributed

LETTER 1: To the Editor: Mr. Weiner’s thesis is that James Madison would have wanted to see more support in Congress for any legislation as sweeping and enduring as Build Back Better. Mr. Weiner is likely correct, but this is hardly a meaningful argument against voting this bill into law.

A wise person once said that “weak managers breed weak managers.” I tend to agree with this assessment. In the world of business, it can be costly but the business bears the burden of their own poor choices regarding who they put in charge of their operations. In the public arena, taxpayers are the ones who bear the burden.

Progressive Democrats in the House of Representatives can be forgiven their anxiety about whether Senators Joe Manchin of West Virginia and Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona will support the more than $1.8 trillion Build Back Better plan. Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York, for example, rues the two senators’ outsize influence, while her colleague Rashida Tlaib of Michigan worries that Mr. Manchin and Ms. Sinema are “corporate Dems” led astray by special interests.

A friend had told us that Buffalo General was the best hospital in the city. We were prepared for the long wait at the emergency room lobby. I checked at the front desk, hopeful. Soon, though, a bad premonition took hold of my girlfriend, Jennifer. She begged me to leave.

With L.A. and other Southern California governments planning for a big increase in housing over the next eight years, a new report illustrates just how poorly the state has done in keeping up with the demand.