Letters for May 16, 2023

Threat to democracy

President Joe Biden is seeking re-election. I wish he were younger and I might favor other Democrats – Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer and 2020 presidential contenders Elizabeth Warren and Cory Booker come to mind. But Biden’s record is impressive and he may have the best chance of winning the presidency.

Republican Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell stated openly and Republicans have followed, a commitment to oppose everything Democrats proposed from the day former President Barack Obama was inaugurated, even if originally Republican-proposed (example: Obamacare largely copied Massachusetts Romneycare). And Republican opposition has become increasingly intense and conspiracy-driven so it’s remarkable how much Biden has accomplished. Even now, House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, beholden to the most extreme Republican House members, threatens to bring down our country by refusing to unconditionally raise the debt ceiling. No matter the hypocrisy of unconditionally raising it repeatedly throughout former President Donald Trump’s administration, including to fund lavish tax cuts for the rich.

Of utmost importance, Biden clearly understands the great threat to democracy that the Republican Party, especially Republican Congress, has become.

McConnell visibly regrets this and could make a real difference, but lacks the integrity to do so. Liz Cheney was the rare congressional Republican heroically combatting the threat, but that got her soundly defeated by her 2022 MAGA Republican primary election opponent.

Locally, Cathy McMorris Rodgers maintains her MAGA credentials, but it’s unclear she understands the threat she is to democracy by going with the flow.

Norm Luther

Spokane

Best you can do?

Is this the best The Spokesman-Review can do? Evidently, filing a bill in Congress is cheap advertising for “our” representative, Cathy McMorris Rodgers, regardless of the bill’s inanity and near-zero chance of passage.

On May 5, McMorris Rodgers received above-the-fold coverage in the Northwest Section for filing a bill addressing her concern over the Veterans Administration’s electronic medical record debacle. What would her bill do? “Require VA hospitals to hold regular town hall meetings.” Surely that would solve the problem, wouldn’t it? Dream on.

Meanwhile, two weeks previously she voted for H.R. 2811, House Speaker McCarthy’s debt-ceiling-hostage bill. McCarthy’s bill, if enacted, would require across-the-board cuts of 22% from federal nondefense discretionary spending, gutting funding for the VA’s effort to deal with the very problem McMorris Rodgers unseriously proposes to address by requiring the VA to hold “town halls.” After 17-plus years in Congress, is this the best she can do? Self-promotion by press release about a nonsensical bill while she votes to take the economy hostage and potentially trash the agency she pretends to protect?

Jerry LeClaire

Spokane

Good Intent, bad strategy

The Spokesman-Review’s reprint of the Washington Post article “Debt Ceiling Showdown” (May 4) considers five possible outcomes for the current fiscal standoff. It is hard to imagine a favorable outcome for Republicans. In 2011, Republican Speaker John Boehner deftly used the debt ceiling to force President Obama to accept spending cuts. However, the dynamics are different today, which will make it unlikely for Republicans to repeat this feat.

First, the House majority is nine now vs. 49 in 2011, and even more fractious. Second, in 2011, the nation was alarmed at President Obama’s spending spree, whereas today’s electorate is largely inured to the massive debt piled up by both parties. Third, though Democrats then, like now, held a slim Senate majority, the 2011 majority was arguably somewhat more prone to compromise.

Speaker McCarthy’s desire to use the debt ceiling to leverage the White House to moderate spending is laudable. However, he has chosen to launch an assault with a weak army and without the crucial high ground. After all, the debt ceiling vote is simply to liquidate prior appropriations (voted for by many Republicans). Default risks throwing the economy into recession, the stock market into a tail spin and undermining America’s already badly tarnished reputation around the globe. Rightly or not, Republicans will be blamed.

Like the vaudeville skit, the speaker has put a gun to his head and warned Democrats not to cross the line or he will pull the trigger.

Bryan Smith

Spokane

Gun laws

Where do we even begin? First … in our own city, people, including myself, don’t even want to go to Riverfront Park, or downtown for that matter. We don’t feel safe. We don’t know if we could be stabbed, robbed or shot. The crime in our town is unbelievable. I was born and raised in Spokane. I don’t recognize this Spokane. I know one thing for sure though, if your downtown dies, your city dies.

Second … As of May 7, there have been 199 mass shootings in this country and we, the American people, are just supposed to accept that because of the misinterpretation of the Second Amendment. I think not.

The Second Amendment doesn’t allow for a person to shoot another person in the head because they went to the wrong house, no words exchanged, just the color of a young man’s skin. It doesn’t allow for someone to shoot and kill a passenger in a car that turned into the wrong driveway. It doesn’t allow for someone to shoot their neighbor mowing his lawn. For heaven’s sake, we’re turning into the “Wild West” here in America.

Is that what the GOP wants? Who will want to visit our country? Will it take the loss of tourism dollars to make them see the light? Gun control measures do not violate the Second Amendment. It’s past time to do something. God help America.

Laura Hegel

Spokane