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This column reflects the opinion of the writer. Learn about the differences between a news story and an opinion column.

What do Republicans want?

Over the past few days the Spokesman-Review has run political cartoons that attack President Biden’s COVID Relief Plan and the pending HR 1 bill.

These liken COVID relief to a ship’s lifesaver with a “kitchen sink” attached, call his plan a “spending spree” that advances income redistribution and depicts doctors vaccinating a patient against the “shock” of costs related to the relief, depicted as a baseball bat that another doctor is preparing to bash the patient’s head in with.

HR 1 is depicted as an affront to Americans’ confidence in our elections but in reality would expand voting rights, change campaign finance laws to reduce the influence of big money in congress, limit partisan gerrymandering and create new ethics rules for federal officeholders.

278 GOP legislators voted for Trump’s trillion-plus-dollar tax giveaway but not a single republican voted for the COVID Relief Plan. It’s likely that HR 1 will be given the same vacuous effort by the GOP.

Republicans want the rich and influential to be rewarded while people who truly need the help and would spend money they’re given and thereby help our economy, to be left out. And the party that recently brought American democracy to its knees on January 6th over what they claimed was a “stolen” election is unwilling to support a bill that would establish more fair elections and encourage more electoral participation.

This is blatant hypocrisy. Americans need to stop blindly following lies and misinformation and to take a stand for our collective well-being.

Ronald Reed

Spokane

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