Letters for Jan. 26, 2024

CMR’s silence speaks volumes

Has anyone else been keeping track of any response from any Republican leaders on recent remarks by the former president and his lawyers that he should not be liable for any actions (immunity) taken while in office?

I’m really curious as to why Cathy McMorris Rodgers has been silent about this issue. Claiming immunity for any actions while being president, including the assassinations of political rivals, should warrant a response from a member of Congress.

Dave Robinson

Curlew, Washington

Pedestrians pay the price for Spokane drivers

As a frequent pedestrian and cyclist who lives close to Division Street, I am grateful to The Spokesman-Review for the article on Jan. 21 concerning the recent increase in pedestrian deaths caused by cars (“ ‘People deserve to feel safe on foot”).

In addition to those cited in the article, dangerous driving habits common in Spokane include the flying turn by drivers already going dangerously fast who turn without slowing down; the drivers who do not respect HAWK signals, even when the pedestrian has waited for a break in the traffic; and street racing, street racing, street racing.

An important instrument for addressing many dangerous driving habits that also was not mentioned in the article is the ticket-issuing traffic camera. Our legislators are currently considering expanding the contexts in which they can be placed. Spokane does not yet place them in all of the currently allowed locations. My top candidate is the Ruby-Division-Buckeye-Foothills multiple intersection.

Linda Carroll

Spokane

We have no other option but to catch up to the rest of world

Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers recently sponsored a bill that she claims will lower health care costs by requiring hospitals and clinics to publish their prices once a year.

It totally discounts your ability to “shop for the right care” when you’re in need of emergency treatment, or to disregard your trusted doctor’s referral and instead look for the cheapest provider of care.

How can CMR show concern about patients when she voted against health care-related bills time and time again?

She voted dozens of times to repeal the Affordable Care Act, which extended health care coverage to millions of Americans. She endorsed an effort to replace the ACA with a plan that would have let insurance companies discriminate against people with pre-existing conditions and charge women more than men.

Medical bills are the No. 1 cause of bankruptcy in the United States, even though we spend more on health care than any country on earth.

As a patriotic American who does envision a better America, we have no other option but to catch up to the rest of world and guarantee health care to all people as a right, not a privilege.

CMR takes an astronomical amount of money from big pharma. She collected the most money from drugmakers out of anyone in Congress in the 2022 cycle.

Her track record on health care shows she is not on the side of the working-class American, but instead is on the side of big pharma, the rich and powerful.

Miguel Valencia

Spokane

Vote ‘yes’ on Feb. 13

For generations, my family has proudly been educated in the Spokane Public School system. As a senior citizen, I can reflect back over the years and see that perhaps the best investments that my family and I have made were to support public education through the necessity of the levy and bond tax.

The multigenerational impact on so many of our community’s outstanding citizens has, as its foundation, been the high-quality public education that they received as students in Spokane Public Schools. Our schools are the heart of our community.

Every six years, we are asked to renew our financial commitment to educate our kids. The taxes related to this renewal are stable, and our tax bills will be relatively the same as the previous levy/bond cycle.

To continue our high quality of public education and maintain, modernize and replace our community schools, it is imperative, and I urge you, to vote “yes” on Feb. 13 on both Spokane School District Propositions 1 and 2.

Investing in a “yes” vote is investing in our community.

Diane Morrison

Spokane