New Trump tax breaks for the ultra wealthy won’t help the Tri-Cities | Opinion

Newhouse should oppose more tax cuts for ultra-wealthy

Musk and other super rich people with influence over MAGA and Trump are pushing hard for another tax cut that would favor the very wealthy. These are people for whom a million dollar contribution to Trump’s inauguration ceremony might be as stressful as a 10 buck donation would be for a working class American. Fairness of taxation should be assessed on the percentage of wealth it takes, not total dollars.

The tax cut would require eliminating the national debt limit because it would explode the deficit, but many Republican lawmakers are opposed to any change in the debt ceiling. There are reports of a possible compromise among Republicans by which any change in the limit would be accompanied by a $2.5 trillion dollar cut in government spending. That must mean over a 10 year period because it looks impossible in one year. Still, that’s $250 billion a year.

With MAGA in charge voters should assume more cuts would come from Social Security, etc... than from the military-industrial complex.

Constituents of Congressman Dan Newhouse deserve an explanation of his position on this issue. Does he favor cutting safety net programs so that the wealthy can have even more disposable income?

Greg Carl, Richland

Revoking polio vaccine isn’t just misguided, it’s dangerous

Robert F. Kennedy Jr., selected by President Trump to be Secretary of Health and Human Services, is a vaccine skeptic. A close associate of Kennedy, Aaron Simes, currently vetting health officials for jobs in the new administration, petitioned the Food and Drug Administration asking regulators to withdraw or suspend approval of the polio vaccine. This is a vaccine that for decades has prevented the infection of millions, the consequences of which I witnessed as a child.

The fear of children becoming infected resulted in my mother restricting our summer activities. We were confined to the house in the afternoon to rest. No swimming, no baseball. The dreaded disease struck a childhood friend, with an infection so severe that he was placed in an iron lung. He eventually recovered but walked with a limp and the disease left one arm withered.

The polio virus is circulating worldwide. It is one airplane flight away from the nightmare of my past should efforts to revoke the use of polio vaccine become reality.

Republican Senator Mitch McConnell, a survivor of childhood polio, said in a statement: “Efforts to undermine public confidence in proven cures are not just uninformed — they’re dangerous.”

Mickey Beary, Richland

Poaching is a serious issue in Washington

One large issue that is very much a real problem is the poaching of wild game in our state of Washington. This is a very large issue that is very much causing problems in our ecosystem and if not checked could start to affect our ecosystem around the state.

Poachers in the state are killing game animals for food and eating them without having the proper licenses or tags to kill these animals. Having the license in tags for the animal is essential because it allows Washington to control the amount of animals that can be hunted in our state as well as the money used to pay for these licenses goes to environmental projects and wildlife projects. These poachers also as well as not buying licenses hunt animals out of season when it is illegal to even hunt

Caleb Lihosit, Kennewick