Letters to the editor Dec. 6

Time for campaign spending limits

Thank goodness the midterm elections are over. We have been pounded day and night for months on every form of media imaginable. The sad part is the orgy of spending that accompanies this campaign of trying to convince voters which candidate is more or less worthy than the other.

According to an article in the news, candidates Sen. Jon Tester and Matt Rosendale spent over $60,000,000 (60 million!!!) in the latest election. This is a record, up from ONLY $47,000,000 in the 2012 Senate race in Montana. WOW!! $107 million total.

So just what could just the last $60 million buy?

- 12 million meals for needy Montanans ($5 per meal)

- 400 new homes for needy Montanans ($150,000 per home)

- 600,000 primary care visits ($100 per visit)

- 1,200 school resource officers ($50,000 each)

- Road and bridge upgrades

- Securing and protecting public lands

- NO NEW TAXES

If you don’t like any of those options, why not just have a drawing for 60 new Montana millionaires?

I think it is high time that a strict campaign spending limit is imposed and any money in excess would revert to the state general fund.

Come on, Senator Tester, you hold the spending records and the senate seat. Step up and do what benefits all Montanans and put an end to the massive spending that is ballooning beyond all reason. I am certain we can come up with better uses for the money and election results would probably not change.

—Marty Boehm, Creston

Medicaid expansion

November 25th’s Inter Lake article “Medicaid expansion battle shifts to Legislature” exemplifies journalistic bias. In her article, Ms. Gardner reports on reasons proponents give to renew Medicaid expansion in the upcoming legislative session. But no where in the article was the reader presented with consequences if the expanded program does continue. There was no mention of the thousands of able bodied individuals now taking advantage of the expansion, nor how expansion dilutes financial resources for care truly needed by Medicaid individuals unable to work. Ironically, the article omits a critical piece of this discussion — the governor’s proposed budget that includes Medicaid expansion funding blatantly circumvents the will of the people who voted down I-185 by a substantial 6 percent - not the misleading “slim” margin stated in the article. Missing are arguments by taxpayer advocates; those paying a large part of the bill. This type of reporting earns the media the reputation of “fake news.” Hopefully future articles by Ms. Gardner will present both sides so readers can come to informed opinions.

—Amy Regier, Kalispell

The passing of a generation

President George Walker Bush has now passed into the pages of history and he marked but one of the few pages left of “The Greatest Generation” of our time.

He was the youngest Naval aviator in our history, I think he was 19 years old when he graduated Naval Flying Academy. He was to that extent an exception to the rule.

Most of that generation are gone and within another five or so years, they will all be gone. My father and my uncles are all gone and all were young men 18-25 years old during the time of the second World War.

From what I saw of this man in his public life, he was rather meek and mild in his speech and actions. For like most of us, we saw him as Reagan’s vice president, and later as his own president and a soft-spoken man in his mid-60s and 70s. It is hard to imagine that this man we saw as V.P. and then as president, was once a very fierce warrior. A young man full of piss and vinegar, flying the latest combat aircraft and looking to kill the pilots of the Japanese empire.

There is one photo of President Bush being rescued by a submarine crew after his aircraft had been hit by flak over a Japanese held island. Having to ditch your aircraft in the wide and empty Pacific Ocean with the possibility that you might not be rescue, speaks of that generation.

So it is, with a tip of my hat to this man and what he represented at a time when our nation was in great peril and he and thousands of others stepped up to the plate.

— Jim Garvey, Kalispell