Letters to the editor: climate progress, courageous Cheney, insulin and McGeachin
Climate progress
The just-passed Inflation Reduction Act adds two carrots and one stick that will significantly add to the climate solution. The first carrot is a tax credit for you — making buying an electric car more affordable. Plus, imagine not having to buy gas ever again. The second carrot is for Idaho Power and other industries to help pay for their transition to clean energy electricity and battery storage. That will help keep your energy costs low and assure America’s long-term energy independence. And the stick is a fine of $900 for every ton of methane that is carelessly leaked into our air by natural gas producers.
It adds up to a 40% reduction in emissions by 2030. That’s not enough to fix the climate, but it’s a good start. As the floods, heatwaves, wildfires, and killer storms continue, get ready for the bigger climate fix — a fine on all fossil fuel emissions. Only when the free polluters’ ride ends, will we all breathe easier, and can our climate gradually return to normal. That’s when, like in Canada, we will all start getting a monthly check paid by the fossil fuel companies for every ton of carbon they put into our air.
Don Kemper, Boise
Courageous Cheney
Liz Cheney has been threatened, demonized, vilified, ostracized, and downsized all because she (as a Republican no less) valued truth and the Constitution above lies, deceit, hatred and anger. She will undoubtedly lose her Wyoming primary to the Republican cult.
Sadly, she will follow in the footsteps of Reps. Rice, Meijer, and Bowers. In Red America, truth, honor and integrity have been replaced by party loyalty to lies, hatred and division. It works well.
Even McGeachin’s ilk soon will soon capture whatever remains of the sane Republican party.
As we have seen Republican senators attempt to sabotage, derail or stop the Inflation Reduction Act in spite of its widespread popularity among Rs, Ds and Is. Helping the American people is not a consideration as evidenced by their killing the cap on the insulin bill.
Not to worry, in Idaho with disregard for facts, truth or the law, Republicans will be reelected regardless of their beliefs or behavior.
So although Liz Cheney will go down in the annuals of Profiles in Courage, the voters of red states will get whatever they deserve be it chaos, division or revolution. Liz Cheney will still remain a true and loyal American.
James Franklin, Meridian
Insulin woes
Idaho, your Senators both just voted not to cap the price of insulin for people with private insurance. They want you to keep paying ten times as much as people in any other country. Then they voted against an entire package of actions to benefit the entire country’s economy. They voted against taking care of veterans and had to be brutally shamed into passing the bill a week later. They are making it clear that they would cut Social Security and Medicare if they got the chance.
Our state Republican party has been taken over by radical anti-Americans who want to nullify the Constitution. This is not your father’s Republican party.
In the words of Harry Truman, “How many times do you have to be hit on the head before you see who’s hitting you?”
Republicans do not want you to prosper or to be free. They want to control you and bleed you dry for corporate profit. It is past time to vote them out.
Nancy Parker, Caldwell
McGeachin’s fibs
Once again, a headline about Janice McGeachin’s embarrassing lies (does she really think no one fact-checks everything that oozes from her mouth?). Who raised this woman? Seriously, she has no moral compass — remember her cozy meeting with the white supremacist group, the one with a Holocaust denier at the helm? She’s a power-hungry zealot trying to make a name for herself amongst the most extreme, and she has no place in public service.
Hang tight, Idaho. In a few short months, she will be irrelevant to us.
Sandra Sweetland, McCall