SCOTUS: Republicans did it first
Let's be clear about what is developing in the U.S. Senate regarding the so-called "nuclear option." The plan to do away with the filibuster so that Republicans could promote Trump's nominee to the Supreme Court with just 51 votes was preceded last year by Majority Leader McConnell's decision to obstruct even holding hearings for President Obama's nominee Merrick Garland. That action by McConnell was unprecedented in our history, as all 14 other nominees appointed in the last year of a president's term were voted on and passed. Sen. Lisa Murkowski had to come up with four completely different excuses to justify her loyalty to McConnell's "nuclear option," so bad was the ploy to keep Judge Garland from even having hearings, let alone a vote in the Judiciary Committee and an up-or-down vote on the Senate floor.
He was so moderate that even Judiciary Chairman Sen. Chuck Grassley said at one time President Obama would never nominate such a middle-of-the-road person to the SCOTUS but if he did he would get the chairman's support. Until Obama did exactly that and Grassley, like Murkowski, chose loyalty to party over tradition and comity. Sen. John McCain is on record as saying the GOP would obstruct any nominee by a President Clinton back in the fall when it appeared likely Secretary Clinton would win. So let's just give up on any pretense that the "nuclear option" will be triggered by a filibuster of quite-right-leaning nominee Gorsuch. That gambit was already played when Republicans refused to even meet and greet the last president's nominee starting last February.
— Robert Atkinson
Seward
We need affordable coverage
I am a long-time Alaskan, first arriving here in my late teens during the pipeline boom. I have spent my entire adult life worried about getting sufficient health coverage for my husband, who received a terminal diagnosis soon after we were engaged. We were fortunate in that I was able to get employer insurance for us both and supplement his disability with Medicare. Medicare didn't cover drugs and many doctors didn't accept it. Health insurance was always my No. 1 concern and remains so to this day. I have lost my husband, but my own health insurance is now a concern as I age.
It appears that American Health Care Act premiums will be sky-high, with little premium protection available for older Alaskans. The expense will drive us out of the state and separate us from our families. We need a solution. Simply abolishing the Affordable Care Act without incorporating better ways to cover the shortfalls is not an answer. We need affordable coverage for everyone — as President Trump promised. It does not sound like the AHCA will do that, especially for Alaskans.
We should be dealing with the cost side of the equation, especially in Alaska, but in the meantime, I urge our delegation to oppose limits for pre-existing conditions and higher rates for older Alaskans. Please protect our care.
— Judy Miller
Anchorage
For the sake of the state, higher education needs more support
We are the UAA spring semester social welfare policy class of 31 students who are primarily majoring in social work. We are a very diverse class by age, gender, ethnicity and race. Many of us have benefited from a variety of scholarships provided by the state of Alaska and Alaska Native corporations.
As part of the class, we are following the activities of the Alaska Legislature as it winds down the session. We applaud the House majority in the passage of its budget.
We lament the inaction in the Senate and are concerned for our university. The Senate's budget proposes to cut $22 million or 7 percent from the university's current operating budget and, if enacted, would represent a cumulative reduction of the university's budget of
$75 million (19.8 percent) over the last four years. That cumulative loss has resulted in 900 employees, and 50 academic programs that have been suspended or eliminated.
To stay afloat the university needs the budgeted amount proposed by the governor and supported by the House of Representatives.
This Senate is also proposing to phase out scholarships. Without scholarships, many students will be unable to attend college. We represent all of the voting districts in Anchorage and the Mat-Su valleys and are engaged in the political process. We are doing internships in many nonprofit agencies and will be looking for employment in many fields of practice soon. Some of us are dreading yet another tuition increase and the other costs of fees. We have lost many administrators who have retired or moved to other universities. We are experiencing difficulty attracting new administrators because they are hesitant to come to a state that is not supportive of higher education and proposing more cuts to programs.
We are proud to be UAA Seawolves and plead with the Senate not to tarnish our reputation and prevent future students, staff and faculty from joining us.
Higher education is an economic engine for the state and needs more fuel, not less.
— Patrick M. Cunningham
course professor
Anchorage
Seward Highway needs alternates
It's time for Alaska to tap some federal dollars and build alternate routes of the Seward Highway.
Make the current route the scenic drive.
Even houses have two doors and Alaskans need jobs.
— Lora Voorhis
Wasilla
Commentary lacked candor
Thursday's commentary from Ajit Pai, chairman of the Federal Communications Commission, and Maureen Ohlhausen, acting chair of the Federal Trade Commission ("No, your online privacy rights aren't gone"), was a spirited defense of Senate Joint Resolution 34.
That resolution, given the thumbs-up by Alaska GOP Sens. Lisa Murkowski and Dan Sullivan and by Rep. Don Young and signed into law Monday by President Trump, overturns a national ban that prevented internet service providers from collecting and selling information on customer browser habits with neither knowledge of, nor permission from, users.
There was ample space in the commentary for Mr. Pai and Ms. Ohlhausen to note that each one of them is a recent Trump appointee; it is a pity they did not embrace the opportunity for candor.
— Cheryl Chapman
Anchorage
President Clinton would have done what Trump just did
Be consoled, Hillary Clinton supporters! Although your candidate did not win the election, it turns out that Donald Trump is "With her!" on two of the key aspects that would have defined a Hillary Clinton presidency: 1. The Trump administration is packed with the Goldman Sachs alums and other Wall Street warriors who have worked so hard to transfer more and more wealth from the middle and working classes to the already-wealthy class; and 2. the foreign policy that the Trump administration is applying to the Mideast shows as much recklessness and as little regard for "collateral" civilian deaths as Hillary Clinton promised during her campaign.
In fact, just today revealed another remarkable display of just how closely Hillary and Donald are "joined at the hip" on the things that matter. Earlier today, in her first policy pronouncement since losing the election five months ago, Hillary advocated for bombing Syrian air bases in retaliation for the chemical weapon atrocities allegedly committed by the Syrian government. Tonight, in contradiction to the advice that he gave to President Obama under similar circumstances in 2013, Donald answered Hilary's call by targeting a Syrian air base with 60 Tomahawk cruise missiles.
Hillary supporters may be frustrated when, as always happens after a president makes a decisive but reckless show of military force, Donald's abysmal approval ratings will improve as a result of his brave action to protect us from a distant country that rivals the United States in responsibility for the number of innocent civilians killed in the Mideast. Buck up, Hillary supporters! This latest immoral and illegal military adventure in the Mideast will probably blow up into a complete disastrous mess, just like all of them in the last decade and a half have, and the blame will fall on Donald and his deplorable supporters rather than yourselves and Hillary.
Seriously, Donald, Hillary, and all your supporters: Can you think of another response to a crisis or atrocity besides lobbing more bombs, compounding misery and expanding wars? It is justified to want to "do something" about the murder of innocent civilians, children and babies in the Mideast. So, let's do something. But maybe we could start by curtailing our own government's role in those murders (I'm sorry — I meant "regrettable, mistaken killings that just seem to happen all the time, but we really don't mean to!")? Maybe we could start by ending our own role in and our support of Saudi Arabia in the killing and slow-death starvation of an entire nation's children and babies in Yemen?
— Douglas Pengilly
Kodiak
Let's invest in our generations
I'm writing you all to express my concern over the proposed cuts to our education. I consider education to be our obligation to our youths. They can not self-fund their education — it is our obligation to make their education a priority. I realize this is not a new problem — we all inherited it.
I grew up with this poem by Robert Fulghum on my great-grandmother's wall, "It will be a great day when our schools have all the money they need, and our air force has to have a bake-sale to buy a bomber." I grew up feeling the adults in my life did not care about my education, and sadly my son feels the same way.
We are in a position to change this for our youths — if we want them as adults to work for and vote to fund education, they need to feel it is important to us now. We have a chance to invest in a generation and future generations to help end this perpetual fiscal gap. Please reconsider your cuts to our education funding — take my PFD, add a state income tax or state sales tax, but fund education — invest in our youths, please. They are our future and we owe them the best education we can possibly give them.
— Lara McGinnis
Ninilchik
We don't need Jared and Ivanka
I do not know what people who were born with a silver spoon in their mouths have to offer the general population of America. In reading the caption of the piece on Yahoo article "Jared and Ivanka ask what their country can do for them," I for one do not believe we need the arrogance of these people. America has given them the opportunity to elevate themselves to a point of extreme arrogance.
They need to join the military and live in the backwoods for a while. We seem to have a new enemy, the rich and famous.
— Roger Bon Sr.
Palmer
Drowning our government
Republicans in the U.S. Senate have voted for the "nuclear option," crushing one more of the "checks and balances" that are supposed to hold our country together. They did it for an extreme right-wing ideologue whose views and opinions are repulsive to the vast majority of Americans, and for an equally repulsive president.
If you think corporations are "people," Gorsuch is your man.
If you think public schools shouldn't do more than a bare minimum to help handicapped children, Gorsuch is your man.
If you would gladly freeze to death to protect your employer's property, Gorsuch is your man.
If you are an employer who would gladly require an employee to freeze to death on the job, Gorsuch is definitely your man.
Otherwise, the Supreme Court is no longer our Supreme Court and the Senate is no longer our Senate. McConnell and company have clearly sided with this administration over and above the interests of the American people. This is another sad day in our history.
— Lars Opland
Wasilla
Heed these patients' complaints
The Alaska legislative session is coming to an end. From a psychiatric patient advocate's point of view, the more things change, the more they stay the same. There is a 50-year legacy of the casual way acute-care psychiatric patients are mistreated.
Psychiatric patients locked in institutions or units and made to feel helpless have a poor prognosis for successfully re-entering society: an esoteric message to state bureaucracies and the Legislature, which do not seem to understand the conditions needed for patient recovery.
If Alaska is to be a progressive state, then approximately 1,000 psychiatric patient complaints a year should bring about change. For the most part, the state and the Legislature have ignored the damage connected to psychiatric patient complaints, and that has to change with the adoption of laws and regulations that reflect best practices for psychiatric patient care.
— Faith Myers and Dorrance Collins
mental health advocates
Anchorage
GOP blocked Obama on Syria
Regarding Syria, Trump and the Republicans are once again blaming former President Obama for not removing Assad from power. When President Obama drew the "red line" and went before the Republican-held Congress seeking war authorization, they denied him and then spent years calling him weak. The Republicans were looking for a reason to impeach President Obama and warned him not to act unilaterally on Syria.
Rep. Jack Kingston, a Republican, noted on "New Day" that other former presidents have unilaterally acted on their own. However, these other presidents didn't have a obstructionist, Republican-held Congress whose sole mission was to impeach them, did they?
Trust me, the whole world knew President Obama was ready, willing and eager to bomb Assad's facilities — something Trump can do without fear of impeachment.
— Phillip Labay Mikes
Anchorage
Our taxi service is crummy
I am glad at any attempt to heighten taxi service in the Municipality of Anchorage. Yellow Cab response is awful. To go from the store to my home often results in a wait of up to an hour and repeat phone calls. Anything that will correct this is welcomed.
— Steven Williams
Anchorage
What will be covered?
Will insurance, Medicare and Medicaid cover the cost (nearing $200) of weekly doctor visits required by HB 159?
— Mary Turner
Anchorage
The views expressed here are the writers' own and are not necessarily endorsed by Alaska Dispatch News, which welcomes a broad range of viewpoints. To submit a letter under 200 words for consideration, email letters@alaskadispatch.com, or click here to submit via any web browser. Submitting a letter to the editor constitutes granting permission for it to be edited for clarity, accuracy and brevity. Send longer works of opinion to commentary@alaskadispatch.com.