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Letters for Oct. 13, 2024

Vote Conroy for gun regulations

I was shocked to discover just recently that Michael Baumgartner, candidate for the 5th District U.S. House seat, proudly supports access to “bump stocks,” a device that converts a semi-automatic rifle into a virtual machine gun. This device was used in the mass murder of 60 people in Las Vegas in 2017 and has rightly been banned in Washington state. Baumgartner is proud that he opposed this ban while in the state Legislature, as he stated in a recent interview with “Washington Gun Law,” a far-right group that opposes any gun regulations.

If Baumgartner is elected to Congress, he will clearly align himself with gun rights extremists that oppose any sensible gun regulations. This frightens me. I want a representative in Congress who will work to protect our safety, in particular the safety of our children. I join most Americans in supporting sensible gun regulations.

I will definitely not vote for Baumgartner but for his opponent, Carmela Conroy, who supports sensible gun regulations.

Gail Furman

Spokane

He’ll do his best in representing their needs

Here’s one out of left field, and I do mean left. My brother, Rob Chase, thinks that I’m a socialist. I don’t agree with many of his opinions and he mine, but those opinions are just those and not facts. On Tuesday, this paper chose to focus on his opinions, not his track record as Spokane County treasurer and a former state legislator.

Rob has tirelessly supported the ability for people to pay their property taxes over time, avoiding the usury penalties that most counties in our state imposed, forcing that property owner into losing their home. Rob tested and proved that most homeowners, paying overtime, could catch up with their obligations and keep their homes. He pushed that through the state legislature, against the opposition of many “politically correct” politicians. He’s also advocated for the rights of state caseworkers to access mental health programs and often meets with both sides of our political spectrum.

“A gaffe is when a politician tells the truth – some obvious truth he isn’t supposed to say.” Again, Rob’s truths may not be mine, but at least he doesn’t gush with empty sound bites like so many politicians. I may not run out and buy some ivermectin, but all voters in District 4 can trust that he’ll do his best in representing their needs.

The S-R was really out of line and did nothing to inform readers of facts regarding the capabilities of both candidates.

Pete Chase

Spokane

Speaking from wrong end of the horse

A horse is a horse, of course, of course, unless it’s Rob Chase. Thanks for the enlightening quote from the horse’s mouth today; doesn’t seem that it came outta the right end of the beast. Good luck with that ungulate health plan, Rob.

Sally Hetland

Spokane

Washington Cares Act is important

I read with interest the “point-counterpoint” opinions regarding I-2124 in the Oct. 6 Spokesman-Review.

I lost my wife of 43 years to Alzheimer’s last March. I’d been her caregiver for almost seven years, through a cracked vertebrae and two ribs, COVID, then Alzheimer’s and a broken hip.

After I realized I couldn’t’ keep up with the house, the yard and garden and caring for my wife, I began a search for institutional care for my wife.

I quickly discovered the difference between “living care” and “assisted care.” If you don’t feel comfortable with a loved one living alone behind closed doors (and my wife could not), assisted care is your only option.

Where I live, the only facility offering assisted care runs $12,000 a month with a limited number of beds available for Medicaid patients. Yes, you read that correctly – $12,000 a month.

Plus, there’s a waiting list for Medicaid patients, so I asked that my wife be put on their list.

If accepted, I would have had to pay three months out of pocket before they’d accept my wife’s Medicaid payments. Three months at $12,000 per comes out to $36,000, the same amount the Washington Cares Acts can provide.

Hey, if you can afford $12,000 out of pocket each month, more power to you. Most of us aren’t so lucky and could use a bit of help caring for our loved ones. The Washington Cares Act is important. The 0.58% payroll tax is a pittance.

Vote no on I-2124.

Patrick Conley

Colville

Don’t undermine best long-term care option

Why would anyone vote (via Initiative 2124) to undermine the best long-term care insurance option available to most of us? The WA Cares option is less expensive – far less expensive for women – than LTC insurance costs on the open market, which is unaffordable for most.

Per simple math, saving the WA Cares’ cost of $290/year for a worker making $50k annually, it would take 125 years for that worker to save up the full $36,500-plus benefit. In WA Cares, no one is excluded for pre-existing conditions. Odds are high that you will need LTC at some time in your life (7 in 10 Washingtonians will) or you will know or care for someone who needs LTC assistance–a family member, a friend, a neighbor.

In the flexible WA Cares program, benefits can be used to address a variety of care needs including in-home care, house modifications, food delivery, transportation to medical appointments and medical devices (wacaresfund.wa.gov/benefits). “Inside Olympia” interviews about WA Cares (tvw.org/video/inside-olympia-wa-cares-fund-2023061109/) have more about the tremendous value of this relatively low-cost program.

Please vote for the common good and against attempts, such as initiative 2124, that would make this option unworkable and thus deny affordable WA Care LTC coverage to so many members of our community. Thank you.

Kathy Hill

Spokane

They are us; they deserve our concern

In his recent opinion piece, “When it comes to homelessness, home is where the healing is,” Chris Corry of the Washington Policy Center starts out with a nice aphorism, “Compassion without accountability is enablement.” Apparently, accountability is important to Corry! So, I hope he won’t mind me calling for him to be “accountable” for his erroneous statements so I don’t enable him to continue making them.

Corry states, “Current data claims that a significant number (more than 80%) of homeless people are local. That is based, however, on surveyors asking what city they were in the night before becoming homeless or the night before being interviewed.”

That is a false claim. In 2022, in answer to this question: “Did you live in Spokane County before you became homeless” – 74% said “yes.” Of those 74%, 79% were from Spokane, 8% Spokane County, and 13% Spokane Valley, according to a city of Spokane 2022 PIT Presentation.

It is cruel to suggest without evidence that our fellow citizens are somehow “other” – that they “aren’t from our town,” making it OK to just shoo them away so they will “go back where they came from.” They come from our town. They are our brothers, sisters, parents, children. They have fallen on hard times.

They are us. And let us do the best we can by them. Cruelly suggesting they don’t deserve our concern because they are “other” does not help us. Please try to be accountable and correct the error.

Dan Simonson

Spokane



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