Newhouse must wake up. We Washingtonians are fed up | Opinion

Is that light at the end of the tunnel?

People are speaking against our autocratic government. Competent government employees not willing to agree with Trump’s destructive actions are resigning or being fired.

Rep. Dan Newhouse is losing popularity because he votes for whatever Trump wants.

Farmers are losing the labor needed to harvest crops. People are losing their homes and/or jobs, being deported without due process, suffering high inflation, and losing most of what makes life livable for the middle and lower classes.

Billionaires are becoming richer and exercising more influence on our government.

Are members of Congress getting richer by performing insider trading as Trump initiates actions such as imposing, backing off, and raising tariffs in the name of balancing foreign trade and bringing jobs to America?

Congress is forcing us to live under the tenets of evangelical Christianity. Women and minorities are no longer gaining equality with white males. Many rights of individuals are being eliminated.

The GOP is allowing democracy, the Constitution, and the rule of law to be eliminated in order to retain power. Is this treason?

Good News: a new majority may understand why their lives are being subjected to chaotic circumstances, are raising their voices against it, and may vote Republicans out of office in 2026.

Perhaps there is some light at the end of the tunnel.

Jim Tow, Richland

Keep energy tax credits in budget

I’d like to thank Rep. Dan Newhouse for signing the letter signed by 21 Republicans in Congress in favor of continued funding for clean energy tax credits. Clean energy tax credits are bringing our area:

• Skilled jobs
• Low electric bills for local homes and businesses
• A reliable and growing electricity supply to serve our growing population

I hope you’ll keep supporting these tax credits in the current budget reconciliation negotiations.

Gail Taff, Richland

Selling out the good to please the ‘tyrant’

Rep. Dan Newhouse has made it his business to be seen in AmeriCorps T-shirts, helping out on AmeriCorps building projects, and trumpeting the fire protection projects, community programs and quality of life improvements that AmeriCorps service members provide the people of Central Washington since his first days in office.

Where is he now?

On April 25, thousands of AmeriCorps contracts in Washington State were illegally canceled by DOGE as part of its reckless strategy of cutting things for the sake of cutting things. These are important jobs, done by volunteers who receive a small living stipend in exchange for a year of service.

Aren’t these positions exactly the kind of civic-minded career development Newhouse is always trumpeting? Isn’t this exactly the kind of common-sense, on-the-ground patriotism we want to encourage in each generation? Opportunities for them to do good in their community?

But not anymore, because if Newhouse were to stand up and do his Constitutional duty in defense of an avowedly bipartisan program, that would mean he ends up on the naughty list of the tyrant in chief, and Newhouse will sell anyone out — you, your family, your neighbors, anybody — if and when the billionaires tell him to.

Corbin Muck, Richland

Are restaurant reports helpful?

While cycling with my friend Jerry Lewis, we got into a discussion about the utility of the Herald’s publishing the results of the Department of Health restaurant inspections. I am not a fan, while Jerry is. I know of no other paper that publishes the inspection results as if these findings are a result of some long-running investigation by the Herald. In fact, these results are freely available on the DOH website for anyone interested.

I trust that the DOH is doing its job, and that any restaurant not fit to eat in is under their supervision or closed.

The restaurant industry is hard enough without the Herald shaming small businesses because some teenage new hire did not have a food worker card.

This kind of “news” is not worthy of the front page of the Herald, in my opinion. My friend Jerry says he feels otherwise, but he is naturally a contrarian in our discussions. Unless he sees the food samplers at Costco on the naughty list at some point, I don’t believe he is really that interested.

John Fisher, Richland