Letters to the editor March 11
Pork-filled relief package
Sen. Tester,
I believe you have no courage to vote against “The orgy of pork” aka the Covid relief bill. Only 5%, or less than $100 billion, of this multi-trillion bill will be spent in the current fiscal year. The rest will be spent through 2028. President Biden is trying to rush through his $1.9 trillion plan, which contains hundreds of billions of dollars in unrelated projects and programs and would bring total spending in response to the pandemic to an astonishing $5.7 trillion.
The Congressional Budget Office recently reported that the economy will return to pre-COVID-19 levels by the middle of this year without a new stimulus package. Spending almost $2 trillion more is simply not needed to stimulate our economy. It will instead increase inflation and dramatically slow down any economic recovery.
Biden’s plan will bail out blue states that have acted irresponsibly, corruptly and are in financial trouble with decades of over-spending. The bill is 9% related to Covid health spending and 91% to the ”Pelosi Pay-off” which includes items, such as, rewards to teacher unions, Planned Parenthood, National Endowment to the Arts, etc., all while sending an already soaring deficit to new heights.
In 2012 I critiqued you, Senator Baucus and President Obama for increasing the national debt by $7 trillion. When President Obama met with his job czar they had a big laugh because the $787 billion stimulus bill headed by Vice President Biden was only about 9% shovel ready and did not produced the results they expected. I stated “Quite astonishing as they wrote the bill”.
Also in 2012 when you praised the legacy of FDR I debunked it and the pointed out the disastrous results of his policies, culminating with pointing out that the linchpin legislation of the National Industrial Recovery Act (NIRA) was declared unconstitutional two years after passage.
You will slap the face of every Montanan if you vote for this bill.
—Walter Rucinski, Kalispell
Blue-collar rhetoric
So, on Friday the Senate approved, with modifications, the Coronavirus Response and Relief act. Due to the changes made in the Senate, the bill will return to the House for a vote. Here’s what’s in the bill:
Extending expanded unemployment benefits.
$1,400 direct payments to most individuals.
Emergency paid leave for employees.
15% increase in food stamp benefits.
Expanded child tax credit.
Expanded earned income credit.
Over $200 billion in grants to small businesses.
Financial aid to state, local and tribal governments.
Financial aid to K-12, colleges and universities.
Over $160B in funding for the fight against the Coronavirus (vaccines, testing and contact tracing).
These relief provisions are overwhelmingly geared toward low-income and middle-class Americans.
All 50 Democrats voted for the bill. All 49 Republicans present (one was absent on an emergency) voted against the bill.
Since Republican voters in our state seem to approve wholeheartedly of their legislators’ actions, I assume none of you will be accepting the $1,400 checks that will be coming your way, or applying for the extended unemployment benefits that will be available, thanks to the Democrats who voted in your best interests.
Please send the uncashed checks back to the Treasury as soon as they arrive.
It is so painfully obvious and crystal clear that your Republican legislators couldn’t care less about you, despite their “blue collar” rhetoric. Why in the world do you keep electing them?
—Mark Paulson, Kalispell
Pro-life cause
I believe pro-lifers are misnamed. Certainly some of them are concerned about unborn babies. But why don’t they care about the lives of these babies once they are born? Do they even know the U.S. ranks anywhere from 43rd to 51st in infant mortalities? That at least 42 countries in the world manage to keep more of their babies alive? I have yet to see a single letter, law or billboard that supports the pro-life cause and also mentions this appalling statistic.
Why don’t they care that the U.S. leads the world in children’s gun death? Sadly, in the U.S. the right to carry an AK47 trumps the life of a first-grader every time.
How, despite overwhelming evidence that masks and social distancing save lives, can professed pro-lifers be OK with a country with 4% of the world’s population and nearly 20% of the world’s COVID deaths? And it appears Montana cares so little about those lives that the governor just removed requirements to wear masks and the Legislature is passing laws to prevent cities that do care from requiring? Also, how can this same Legislature pass laws to allow concealed carry guns on college campuses knowing this state had the highest suicide rate in the nation in 2018 and that college students are especially vulnerable
I believe in many cases pro-life people are misguided or misinformed. I also believe some are just obsessed with women’s wombs. For those who are sincere, there are effective and humane ways to reduce abortion rates. Making abortion illegal never works. Education, easy access to birth control and improved economic opportunities will do what the foolish laws proposed by Montana legislators will never do.
Note of interest. In 2019, Iowa experienced a 25% increase after they eliminated funding for Planned Parenthood.
—Loraine K. Measure, Kalispell
Sexual education needed in schools
I am writing to urge our leaders to repeal the advance of the bill for parents to opt out of sexual education in public schools.
As a public high school student who has gone through sexual education class, I know how important sexual education is for all students, especially high schoolers. It is so very important that students are taught what can happen in certain situations, how to avoid unwanted sexual activity, about the human body as they are reaching adulthood, rape, etc.
Due to the past year’s pandemic, learning opportunities have been limited and kids are already struggling to learn the basics and if they were to take away the teaching of sexual education to some students, it would impact the students in the long run. Teenagers need to sexual education classes because not all parents are involved enough in their children’s life to teach them about why sex can be dangerous.
Teenagers only have a few years to live life to the fullest in high school as a high school student and things like teen pregnancy or unplanned pregnancy shorten that already short time span. With so much peer pressure present in high school, it is important for students to learn about the dangers of sexual activities at a teenage age. Teen pregnancy is the leading cause of teenage girls dropping out of high school.
Furthermore, about every 3 out of 10 girls will get pregnant before the age of 20. Keeping the option for sexual education classes as open as possible should be supported, for the greater good of teenagers.
—Brittica Truscott, Kalispell