Letters to the editor Feb. 4

Unconstitutional trial

Well, the far left is at it again, destroying the United States Constitution. Not only was our Constitution thrown out by states such as Pennsylvania and Georgia (see Article II, Section 1, the state's legislature makes the voting rules), but now they've added an unconstitutional impeachment trial in the Senate. See Section I, Article 3, the chief justice of the Supreme Court presides over the trial of the president. Not only is Donald Trump on longer the president, but Chief Justice Roberts says he will not preside. There can be no Constitutional trial.

Wake up America!

—Michael Penner, Kalispell

Sanctuary cities

There are two problems with the Jan. 27 article “GOP chair shuts down testimony opposing sanctuary city ban.”

First, the Associated Press reporter probably misunderstood the legislation’s practical effect, writing “The bill [HB 200] would require local law enforcement to comply with federal immigration law.”

Actually, the bill would merely prevent state agencies and local governments from issuing gag orders to keep their law enforcement officers from communicating with federal immigration agencies when—operating with their usual discretion—such officers would otherwise choose to do so.

In other words, HB 200 wouldn't force anybody to do anything. It would merely keep the desk jockeys from interfering with on-the-scene judgments of their officers in the field. (Experienced officers know that federal immigration laws are a useful tool for removing illegal-alien predators from our communities without requiring involvement by often-fearful witnesses.)

Second, the article quotes Lauri Franklin, an opponent of HB 200, testifying that “This bill is specifically intended to isolate, intimidate and demonize both documented and undocumented immigrant populations by identifying them as other, unworthy of protection, citizenship and humane treatment.”

The problem here is with the testifier, not the reporter: Franklin’s assertion about the bill is industrial-strength hysteria with no grounding in reality.

But as described in the article, Franklin’s ungrounded testimony was in keeping with that of many of the bill’s opponents. Thus it’s worth saying that HB 200 has nothing to do with racial profiling, or refugees, or asylum, or religion, or immigrants and foreign visitors who are lawfully present.  And House Judiciary Committee Chairman Barry Usher acted responsibly in curtailing the opponents’ attempts to muddy the waters by broadcasting their fantasies.

—Paul Nachman, Bozeman

Biden agenda

Senator Tester recently stated that he was disappointed with the decision of the Biden administration to cancel the Keystone XL pipeline. This pipeline would have contributed over $60 million annually in property taxes to six eastern Montana counties that desperately need and were counting on this revenue.

As the U.S. Senate is evenly split between Republicans and Democrats, there has never been a better time for the senator to use his leverage to reverse this terrible executive order. Without his vote, President Biden cannot pass his pet projects like the Green New Deal, raising taxes, ending the filibuster and appointing liberal judges to the bench. Instead of supporting a Senate impeachment which is doomed to failure, he could actually do something that makes a difference.

The Senator always says he is back in Washington to help the “folks” in Montana. This is a critical time to see if he actually practices what he preaches.

—Tom Hauptman, Billings

Cabinet compensation

Our new millionaire governor is compensating his cabinet directors on a champagne budget, while taxpayers try to survive on a cheap beer budget, or less.

On average, he’s paying his “rookies” 20% more than the experienced directors of the Bullock cabinet, including several receiving 40% more. When was the last time you got a 40% raise? Gianforte promised high paying jobs when campaigning – now we are seeing them. We taxpayers pick up the tab for these expensive directors (numerous shipped in from outside Montana), and for his significant pay cut for the wealthiest 3% of Montanans. Blue-collared workers supporting the gold-collared workers, again!

Let’s look at a couple of his highly compensated directors. Gianforte selected a young woman (age 31) from Pennsylvania to run DNRC/State Lands. Her experience includes being “acting deputy assistant director,” briefly holding another “acting” position, and being an aide to Ryan Zinke (a familiar name). She’ll make a pile of money doing something for which she has no experience, and making decisions about state lands in a state she’s totally unfamiliar with – what could possibly go wrong!

Gianforte picked a man from Kentucky to run Health and Human Services. He ran Kentucky Health and Family Services for just over a year, where he fashioning the Kentucky Medicaid Plan, which was declared illegal by a federal judge. Great qualifications for getting the big bucks – right?

Hold onto your wallets Montanans, the millionaire in the governor mansion has no understanding of the struggles the average taxpayer experiences, and it will show in his policies and decisions. We’re entering a new age of Copper and Bonanza Kings in Montana and will spend decades cleaning up the Superfund sites and paying the bills – again.

—Pam Willison, Kalispell

A new state?

In a recent article about the Keystone pipeline it says "Montana's top Republican leaders have wasted no time criticizing those actions , saying they will kill jobs and make the United States more dependent on foreign oil." If the oil from Canada's tar sands field is not foreign oil when did we annex Alberta?

—Fred Frost, Whitefish