Letters to the Editor for Sunday, Nov. 30

Monaghan plaque, not statue, is offensive

Let’s get this straight once and for all. There is nothing offensive about the Monaghan statue! The plaque is another matter. The Spokane Council of the Navy League got it right in saying the statue commemorates a brave naval officer who did a heroic act defending his fallen comrade. As for the plaque, yes, it can be construed to be offensive, and it is historically inaccurate. However, the Samoans did behead the corpse of Monaghan and his comrade, so I’m not sure the word “savage” is not correct.

The city of Spokane can give me $50,000, and I will remedy the situation by removing the current plaque and put up a “nonoffensive” plaque in its place.

Bruce Colquhoun

Spokane

Comment not fully accurate for those in HOAs

I want to point out an inaccurate claim that appeared in The Spokesman-Review on Nov. 23 regarding the city wanting to raise tax on water, sewer and trash bills. In that article, Marlene Feist, director of public works, states that there will be a larger credit for those seniors and disabled that quality for a property tax credit.

I qualify for a property tax credit. I do NOT get a reduction on the fees for water, garbage and trash. This is because I live in an HOA.

Apparently, the accounting office of public works has an issue with figuring out how to bill property managers of HOAs that have lower income seniors within their walls. Apparently, we are basically grouped as one entity. I would think it would be fairly easy to figure out how to include a reduction for those of us who live in an HOA that do quality for a discount. Basically, I am giving the city over $200 per year because I live in an HOA. I’m sure I’m not the only one in the city that has this issue.

Until that is figured out (if ever, and boy would it be nice to get this issue resolved) please be accurate in reporting that not ALL who qualify, can get the reduction in costs.

Yes, I have spoken to my City Council members’ assistant who also tried working with public works to see if anything could be done. Final answer was “no.”

Cheryl Henley

Spokane

Health care story shows bleak truth

Your “health care time bomb” article was excellent – and a bleak overview of American health care. Your graphs also illustrate well that, by every metric, American health care costs are out of control. We pay double for health care that dismally underperforms all other comparable countries. We’re lowest in life expectancy, highest in preventable death, and worst in health care access. Shamefully, we leave about 27 million Americans with no health care whatsoever. And nearly 20% of our entire economy is spent on these bad outcomes.

Both Democrats and Republicans agree that our health care system is a dysfunctional mess. It needs a complete overhaul. But politics and special interests prevent meaningful change.

A Republican overhaul envisions government getting out of health care and letting market forces compete to reduce costs. Good luck with that. Unrestrained market forces (i.e. greed) have driven most of the cost escalation we now suffer. It’s ludicrous to suggest that insurance companies, Big Pharma, for-profit hospitals, ambulance services, and others will release their stranglehold on health care. After all, they’ve turned health care into their lifeblood – a money-making commodity.

Democrats try but are powerless to help, as demonstrated by the failed shutdown showdown. For now, they ask to extend insurance subsidies, which helps the helpless but fixes nothing and continues to feed the beast. Even if Democrats had the power, they mostly have a repair kit full of band aids that faces severe political headwinds.

The right fix? Single-payer universal health care, Medicare for all.

Getting there is brutally difficult. But we’d save trillions.

Steve McNutt

Spokane

Tax and spend again?

Reading your news on Nov. 25 about the Spokane City Council increasing a variety of taxes to fund their budget, I didn’t note much discussion of cutting spending. What gives? Why do our politicians seem to always raise our taxes rather than cut their spending?

Eric Green

Spokane