Letters for July 13

Baumgartner hasn’t gained prominence

Imagine my surprise Tuesday morning when I picked up The Spokesman-Review and read that our newbie congressman, Michael Baumgartner, has declared himself “our state’s most prominent Republican” while challenging Washington Gov. Bob Ferguson to a debate over Donald Trump’s disastrous spending bill.

I’d have thought that veteran GOP Rep. Dan Newhouse of Yakima might have deserved the “most prominent” moniker on Baumgartner’s side of the aisle for his seniority. But wait! Newhouse voted to impeach Trump in Trump’s first term for his role in the Jan. 6, 2021, assault on the U.S. Capitol, thus earning the enmity of Trump and his allies.

Newhouse won his last election despite Trump’s efforts to replace him with a NASCAR driver and is the last Republican still in Congress who voted to impeach Trump. Newhouse has been in office for four terms, compared to Baumgartner’s six months.

Ferguson should ignore Baumgartner’s posturing and his gigantic ego. There are major, ongoing protests in Spokane and other Eastern Washington cities against the Trump/Baumgartner agenda: terrorizing immigrants with masked ICE raids; slashing funds to fight the dangerous impacts of climate warming from fossil fuel burning; and rewarding the wealthy with more deficit-exploding tax cuts while stripping health care, food and hospital services from lower-income people.

Baumgartner will never reach the prominence of our late congressman and House Speaker Tom Foley. He is engaging in lies while proclaiming his fealty to the worst president in our nation’s history. We are not fooled by his antics.

Karen Dorn Steele

Spokane

Remove dams, save our salmon

Climate change is one of the largest existential threats to our country and the planet. Fossil fuel burning financially benefits a few industries at the expense of all living organisms, exacerbated by fossil fuel lobbying and false media narratives. The current administration will reduce subsidies for renewable energy, solar and wind, and incentivize coal production, the most polluting fossil fuel. While the rest of the world is moving forward to clean energy, we will be left behind facing more weather disasters and wildfires, while losing well-paying clean energy jobs and creating possibly an uninhabitable Earth.

The Biden administration’s Resilient Columbia Basin Agreement offered a science-based path forward where abundant fish runs could co-exist for all citizens with reliable, clean energy. Trump’s memorandum will undermine years of public discussions and community engagement by fish experts, state governments and key tribal leaders, as salmon move closer to extinction. The dams on the Snake River produce just 4% of the region’s electricity, and it is easily replaceable with more seasonally appropriate wind and solar. These dams provide no flood control. Rep. Michael Baumgartner contends the locks are needed for transportation for wheat farmers, like his family corporate farm. Farmers are in trouble with Trump’s announced tariffs, closing foreign markets, low wheat prices and glyphosate residue other countries have prohibited. The Snake River ecosystem encompasses thousands of square miles of climate-resilient, high-elevation habitat that is protected under public land ownership, safeguarding fish and wildlife. Let’s not fail on our chance to restore it.

Ernie Robeson

Spokane

Funding for public schools falls short

Our founding mothers and fathers valued educated citizens. They made sure education would be available to all by enshrining public school funding in the state constitution so all kids can go to school.

But what is going on with our state budget? We’re coming up short this year by a projected $141.5 million. Funding for public education may suffer holdbacks due to falling revenue.

Our legislators voted last winter to spend $50 million on a private school voucher scheme and sweeping tax handouts tilted toward the wealthy. Gov. Little said these giveaways were too deep, but he still signed the bills into law. These carve outs will not be clawed back but the Idaho Department of Education has warned that every public school district in the state could lose funding.

Now what will we do? The price will be paid by our kids in our underfunded public schools throughout the state. You can do something about this. Research the candidates and vote for people who will fund public education.

Kayla Dodson

Boise