Letters to the editor Sept. 30

Ridiculous arguments

I enjoyed the letters from Les Nelson and Len Moyer in the Sept. 27 Inter Lake urging the unvaccinated from seeking medical help. I couldn’t agree more. In fact, I would like to take the idea further.

I propose that if you choose to overeat and have a heart attack you should also avoid straining the medical system with your stupid choices. Hurt yourself doing extreme sports? No medicine for you! Sexually transmitted disease? I guess you should have made better choices instead of burdening the system with your care.

If these arguments seem ridiculous, it’s because they are. If you create a world in which you get to dictate other people’s actions, how long until your actions are being dictated to you?

—Neil Creighton, Kalispell

Child Tax Credit worth keeping

The new Child Tax Credit monthly payments started in July and they are already having a profound impact. Researchers at Columbia University estimate that the monthly child poverty dropped by 25% after the payments started, lifting 3 million children above the poverty line. This is an amazing accomplishment that will only improve as more people get signed up.

But these improvements, along with much-needed changes to the Earned Income Tax Credit for low-wage workers, will expire after this year. We cannot let this happen. We can make these provisions permanent now, funded with fairer taxes on the rich and corporations.

If you are not getting the Child Tax Credit payments, please go to www.GetCTC.org and sign up. Next, contact Montana Senators Jon Tester and Steve Daines as well as House Rep. Matt Rosendale now telling them to make the changes permanent, including full refundability of the Child Tax Credit for all low-income families, in economic recovery legislation this year.

—Karen Cunningham, Coram