Daines should decry Trump’s scheme on payroll tax
The D.C. administration keeps talking up its scheme to slash the payroll tax as part of any further release of covid funding. They either don’t know or don’t care that Medicare and Social Security are funded by the payroll tax. Sen. Tester has spoken out persuasively and unequivocally against this crazy idea that would harm Montanans now and in the future. Yet there’s not been a peep from Sen. Daines. Daines has always been intimidated by party higher-ups such as McConnell and Trump—I’ve never seen Daines stand up to either man on any important issue. Daines has always been a cautious follower, not a leader. But the proposed gutting of the payroll tax cut would hurt the very Montanans he’s supposed to represent.
Gov. Bullock spoke out against gutting the payroll tax, just as he’s fought for better health care and expanded Medicaid for Montanans. I can’t bring myself to vote for Daines, who seems too timid to stand up to his party leaders’ scheme to gut the payroll tax. I’ll instead vote for Bullock, who I know has no such fear.
Philip Williams
Bozeman
Cutting social security tax won’t balance the budget
Just in case you think that you’re a conservative because you voted for Trump and everyone else in the Republican Party these days who take it as their mission to destroy Social Security. Consider
this and the man who said it: “Social Security, let’s lay it to rest once and for all… Social Security has nothing to do with the deficit. Social Security is totally funded by the payroll tax levied on employer and employee. If you reduce the outgo of Social Security, that money would not go into the general fund or reduce the deficit. It would go into the Social Security Trust Fund. So Social Security has nothing to do with balancing a budget or lowering the deficit.” — Ronald Reagan
Tom Giebink
Bozeman
Denial of climate change is wasting valuable time
My house in Bridger Canyon was spared from our recent forest fire, this time. Now I look out to a charred and altered landscape that is becoming ever more familiar in the West. The wildfires in the West are increasing in both frequency and magnitude, and there is no question as to the cause.
Bio-climatologists and climate scientists from Stanford to Columbia University have come forward to state in no uncertain terms that there is a direct connection between anthropogenic influence
and increased wildfire; yet half of our representatives toe the line claiming that there “simply isn’t enough evidence to act.” Some go so far as to cynically claim that “more logging would prevent fires,” akin to arguing “destroying the climate will stop climate change.” Desiccation of forests is the problem, and logging will not help.
Our own Steve Daines has told me that addressing climate change would “cost jobs and hurt families.” Well my family’s hurt, as are scores of other families across Bridger Canyon and thousands more across the West. The GOP wants to tell us bedtime stories that “climates always change” (never mind that the rate of change since the industrial era is exponential and increasingly asymptotic) to lull us to sleep while they grab cash from a fossil fuel industry that is itself fossilizing. They’re setting us up for a nasty wake-up in the middle of the night when the wildfires of change can no longer be ignored, or even fought against.
We are losing valuable time and footing arguing against the sophists of climate nihilism. If we wish to avoid the coming disaster, we must get climate-deniers out of office. This issue is singular in its existential importance and supersedes all other policy affecting our country and our lives moving forward.
Bryce Ross
Bozeman
To save our Constitution, vote pro-democracy ticket
I am very afraid of the spread of COVID-19 in our country, but I’m even more afraid of our authoritarian regime leader and his cronies who have for the last four years been trying to rob America of the democracy guaranteed to us by our nation’s founders and the Constitution.
Trump is hateful, selfish, divisive, dishonest and unethical. He does not believe in laws of any type. He believes he has exclusive power over all, which makes him the most dangerous person in our country.
He has not “drained the swamp;” instead, he has filled it with cronies (some elected, but others appointed to positions they are not qualified to hold) who are aiding and abetting his corruption for fear of losing their cushy jobs, political careers, or being otherwise publicly ostracized.
Wake up, America. Our democracy is far too precious to lose for us or future generations. We can put an end to this attempt to take down our government by exercising our right to vote in the upcoming general election. Let’s rid the country of Trump and Trumpism now. Vote pro-democracy candidates Biden, Bullock, and Williams at the national level and others all the way down to the local level.
Lorraine Ekegren
Belgrade
Do Trump’s values meet the standards we have set?
The term “Montana values” has always resonated for me since moving here in 1978. The Montanans I met valued things like decency, integrity and morality. Montana values were what your word
meant, the truth. For the past four years, Steve Daines has had president Donald Trump featured on the front page of his website. Daines has fully endorsed Trump, unequivocally, and has remained 100% loyal throughout his presidency.
My question to my fellow Montanan’s is: Are Donald Trump’s values the same as Montana values? Trump’s values evidently reflect those of Steve Daines. Are Trump’s values the same as yours?
I thought I knew what Montana values meant to folks, now I’m not so sure.
If I could list all the personal, political and legal transgression made by Trump, would you pause and question his values, morals or integrity? Would you hire Trump to run your organization or your family’s business? Do Trump’s values reflect the sum total of yours? Are you going to set your Montana values aside at the voting booth this November, again?
Please, before casting your vote, ask yourself the following question: “Do Donald Trump’s values meet the standards we expect in our Montana kids?”
Doug Wales
Bozeman
Bozeman Daily Chronicle Letters to the Editor 9/20/20