Letters for March 26

Food bank cuts must be reversed

Over many years, I was a chef at Shalom Ministry Central Methodist and at House of Charity. A huge amount of food we used over many years depended on Second Harvest.

Donald Trump is cutting $500,000,000 from food banks like Second Harvest. Tom’s Turkey Drive also depends on Second Harvest.

Rep. Michael Baumgartner supports these huge cuts to basic human needs in Spokane. This must be set aside and reversed.

John A. Olsen

Spokane

Baumgartner at least tries to meet constituents

I’m writing in response to the March 21 story (“Activist group says it reserved hundreds of seats at Rep. Baumgartner’s tumultuous town hall”) regarding Indivisible’s packing of Baumgartner’s recent appearance at Whitworth. Although I don’t agree with all of his positions, I believe Baumgartner deserves credit. He went against the advice of his party’s elites and held two events where local constituents could ask unscreened questions. He’s also one of only a few Republican legislators who has been courageous enough to go on record opposing even one of the Trump administration’s lies and mistakes.

Unfortunately, the Whitworth event was derailed by repeated disruptions from angry crowd members with only a few unsuccessful attempts by the moderator to restore order. It’s a shame that we were denied the opportunity for a more civil discussion of important issues at such a crucial time.

I attended the Whitworth event in hopes of encouraging Rep. Baumgartner to oppose the reckless and irresponsible complete dismantling of USAID. This action has already caused a great deal of suffering and many deaths amongst the world’s most vulnerable people.

It’s my hope that Rep. Baumgartner remains open to hearing from constituents with a wide range of opinions and doesn’t retreat into the comfort of a partisan echo chamber.

Alan Binnie

Deer Park

Necessary cuts target waste, fraud

Patty Murray stated that DOGE is conducting an “all-out assault” on Medicaid (“Murray warns of risks to hospitals if Medicaid is cut,” March 18). Anyone following this knows that the Trump administration has said repeatedly that their target is “waste, fraud and abuse only” when it comes to Medicaid, Medicare and Social Security. No cuts in benefits are proposed. Sen. Murray should at least wait until cuts are proposed or enacted before saying these things.

Murray also goes on and on about billionaires being favored and not paying their fair share of taxes. According to the Tax Foundation, in 2021 (the most recent year available), the top 1% paid 46% of all federal income taxes and the top 5% paid 66% of them. Clearly, Murray has won this issue, our tax code is hugely progressive. But when it comes to controlling government spending, if not now, when?

The national debt now exceeds $36 trillion. According to the CBO, interest on the debt this fiscal year will be $952 billion, which is more than defense spending. By 2035, under existing law, interest on the debt will be $1.8 trillion, more than any spending program except Social Security, according to CBO projections.

There’s no question if we wait until then to control spending, cuts that Murray is complaining about now will be 100 times worse. When I see the kinds of crazy spending that DOGE is uncovering, why isn’t Murray on board with this? If not now, then when, Senator Murray? Our children’s America is at stake.

James Lowe

Spokane

Veterans deserve better than Cerner

I would like to correct some of the statements in the “Time to reform Veterans Affairs,” an opinion column published March 9 in The Spokesman-Review. This column was written by Wilson Beaver and Ka’Von Johnson of the Heritage Foundation, and I am addressing the Electronic Health Record issues in their article.

The VA contracted with Cerner in 2018 to replace their Vista (Veterans Health Information Systems and Technology Architecture) system at a cost of $10 billion. Donald Trump did not request any bids; he simply awarded this contract to Cerner.

Mann-Grandstaff VAMC in Spokane was the “rollout facility.” Cerner’s Electronic Health Record was a disaster from its inception and continues to be a disaster. The staff had intensive education regarding the new system on multiple occasions. Cerner claimed that there wasn’t adequate orientation given to the staff. It claimed that it would fix the problems with the system and was “working on it,” again on multiple occasions. The problems with this system have been all over the media nationally for years and also with constant congressional complaints.

In June 2022, Oracle bought Cerner for $28.3 billion. Nothing has changed in correcting this system with Oracle.

Trump started this issue in 2018. Joe Biden simply inherited Trump’s disaster and Trump has refused to claim responsibility nor accountability. Oracle Cerner has been a disaster since its inception. None of us knows why Trump awarded this contract to Cerner without asking for any bids. Clearly, our veterans deserve better than his Cerner contract that he awarded in 2018.

Ellen Halter

Spokane Valley