Letters for Jan. 18, 2023
Idahoans deserve better representation
In his 2023 State of the State address, Governor Little addressed his budget priorities for the 2023 legislative session. At the top of his list are plans to follow through on our legislators’ September special session promise to increase funding for K-12 public and career education by $410 million.
Dan Foreman, newly elected District 6 Senator, is showing his true colors right out of the gate! He does not see ranking 41st in the nation for starting teacher salaries and 51st in funding per student as a problem. He wants the quality of Idaho education to be evaluated before increasing funding for education. This apparently includes solving societal issues such as drugs, “the breakup of the family unit” and “interference by the federal government,” which he says are affecting school performance. (Daily News, 1/10/23.) Wow! I’d love to hear his proposals for addressing those concerns while Idaho’s educational system remains so inadequately funded.
Dan Foreman clearly does not represent Moscow voters, who show our support for public education by funding almost half of the Moscow School District’s annual budget through an ongoing supplemental levy. And he doesn’t represent the 1,000 volunteers from across the state, the 100,000 voters who signed the Quality Education Act to put Prop 1 on the ballot last Nov., or the 80% of Idaho voters who, on the Nov. ballot, overwhelmingly approved of the action taken in the special session.
Idahoans deserve better representation in our legislature.
Gretchen Wissner
Moscow
Classified records
The careless handling of our nations classified documents is indeed of great concern. Now that Attorney General Merrick Garland has decided to appoint a special counsel to investigate President Biden’s clear disregard for the proper handling and storage of sensitive national documents, will the president turn on his esteemed AG? Will Biden now start a campaign to dishonor his AG’s name and career, ultimately fire him from his post in which he is entrusted to make these difficult decisions favoring the good of the nation over the ire of his boss? Unlike the former president, probably not!
Both presidents and any other officials’ misdeeds, including the removal of such documents from their appropriate confinements and leaving them lying about inside a golf resort or next to the Vette in the garage, need to be held accountable to highest extent of the law.
Ken Delanoy
Spokane
Anarchy
If anyone who witnessed the recent chaos involving the election of a new speaker for the House of Representatives think that was a spectacle, buckle up for you have not seen anything yet. McCarthy sold his soul and the House to gain this job as speaker, a job few want or get to keep. The last two GOP speakers left Congress and the job as they could not control the extreme wing of the party.
McCarthy will face similar rebuke, partly of his own making. He made it possible for a single House member to call for a vote on him retaining his position. For the purpose of governing, he allowed two members of the extreme wing of the caucus to be assigned to the Rules Committee which decides what legislation can be put on the floor.
What the Republican majority will demand is a reduction in government spending while making the Trump tax cuts permanent, tax cuts of which 87% went to the wealthy and corporate America. Expected to be included in the GOPs move for austerity, are cuts to Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid. One can be assured our local representatives, McMorris Rodgers, Fulcher and Simpson are “yes” votes on these cuts to the social network. Newhouse might be not be. They will use raising the debt ceiling as a bargaining chip, which would cause a shutdown of the government and risk default on the debt.
Anarchy rather than governance, a fools errand.
Allen Roberts
St. John, Washington