WA cherry growers in for tough times with Trump’s tariffs | Opinion

Trouble ahead for cherry growers

Cherry farmers face potential bankruptcy, say articles in local papers. These will be the first obvious victims of the intentional GOP plan to bankrupt farmers in order to drive down land prices, so that the billionaires can buy up land cheaply.

Fear-inducing immigration policies to drive away hard-working labor, and tariff policies that dry up markets achieve these GOP aims. This is not speculation. This is GOP’s written Project 2025 plan in action and succeeding.

GOP House members, like the Fourth District’s Dan Newhouse, may be good at chatting people up in rural cafes, but in Washington, D.C., he is not your friend.

Jay Grate, West Richland

Imagine Biden or Harris leading

I have been reading all of the anti-Trump letters over the last few months.

All I have to say is there is I could not imagine Joe Biden or Kamala Harris being in charge last weekend. Thank God for President Donald Trump.

Jim Reinhardt, Richland

U.S. follows lead of a ‘rogue nation’

Nearly 10 years ago, the U.S. and other world powers reached a landmark nuclear agreement with Iran not to develop a nuclear weapon. Two years after the deal went into effect, President Donald Trump withdrew the U.S. from the nuclear accord, in one of the most significant foreign policy actions during his first term as president.

Trump was in the process of re-establishing a nuclear agreement with Iran when an unprovoked Israeli attack on Iran’s nuclear facilities undermined any chance of an agreement.

Israel failed to eliminate Iran’s regime or cripple its nuclear program and took unexpected blows of its own. It then faced a prolonged war with a much larger country or convincing the U.S to join in its war with Iran.

Instead of condemning Israel for its attack with no proof of Iran’s development of a nuclear weapon, or seeking congressional approval, our president has ordered an attack on Iran’s nuclear facilities over an agreement that he broke. Most nations recognize Israel’s misdeeds and inhumanity, but Trump continues the custom of being a poodle of Israel’s Netanyahu in supporting Israel. How much more taxpayer money and lives will be lost before we quit aiding this rogue nation?

Bill Petrie, Richland

Senate budget bill a threat to care

As a physician and insurance executive, I’ve seen how vital Medicaid is to Washington’s health system. The U.S. Senate’s budget bill will unravel it. If it is passed, over 500,000 Washingtonians could lose coverage. New work requirements would push many off the rolls, forcing people to delay care or seek treatment without insurance.

Washington stands to lose $2 billion in Medicaid funding over four years — hitting hospitals, rural clinics and nursing homes hard. These cuts could destabilize facilities already operating on razor-thin margins.

The bill targets vulnerable groups. Provisions would ban Medicaid from covering gender-affirming care — based on ideology, not medicine. Rural areas, particularly in congressional Districts 4 and 5, would be hit hardest, with services like substance use disorder (SUD) treatment at risk of vanishing.

These changes won’t just hurt Medicaid recipients — they’ll raise costs for everyone. When uninsured patients use emergency rooms, we all pay through higher premiums and fees.

There is a better way. Washington’s Universal Health Care Commission (UHCC) has outlined a single-payer system projected to save billions while expanding care. Now is the time to move to this plan.

Now is the time for action. Call your legislators and urge the UHCC to release their universal healthcare design.

Dr. John Sobeck, Bainbridge Island