Letter writer Larry Craig claims that congressional Democrats want bills to be as large as possible, while Republicans think they should be small and focused (“Parties’ different ideas,” Dec. 31). That’s really not the case.
President Joe Biden wanted to address support for Ukraine and immigration reform separately. It’s the House Republicans who tied the issues together and are refusing to consider one without the other.
As much as some Republicans argue in favor of individual spending bills, they’ve already backed themselves into a corner through bickering internally and trying to score political points.
Our government is currently funded through a continuing resolution rather than an actual budget, because House Republicans can’t get their act together. The Constitution requires all spending and revenue bills to be passed by the House before they’re sent to the Senate.
Congress faces a Jan. 19 deadline, when parts of the federal government will shut down without a budget or a continuing resolution. House Speaker Mike Johnson, during a recent photo op at the border, suggested Republicans would use this deadline as leverage in getting what they want on immigration.
House Republicans are so dysfunctional that it took them 15 rounds of voting to elect House Speaker Kevin McCarthy. After they ousted him, they spent three weeks squabbling with each other before handing the gavel to Johnson.
Republicans are also wasting time trying to impeach Biden for having a messed-up son. They want to impeach Alejandro Mayorkas, secretary of homeland security, over the border issue. Neither of these cases meets the Constitution’s requirement for impeachment: “treason, bribery, or other high crimes and misdemeanors.”
Immigration reform will have to be a compromise bill that covers many issues, with no one getting everything they want. Passing individual bills is unlikely, given the levels of distrust in the nation’s Capitol these days.
Craig is correct when he writes that smaller, more focused bills would be a better approach on legislation — yet that’s not possible with House Republicans standing in the way.
— Mike Mosser, Chicago
Feelings of most Americans
I read the letter from Larry Craig and have a different viewpoint. I agree that there is no bipartisanship in Congress. But the average American does agree on a number of issues.
Most Americans support that background checks be required for gun purchases. Poll numbers vary, but more than 75% agree that the Congress should mandate background checks. One party thinks that this is against the Second Amendment and refuses to consider background checks. The other party believes that laws should go much further — waiting periods between gun sale and possession, no AR-15s, etc.
Most Americans support clean air and water. The smoke from the wildfires in Canada made that clear when we couldn’t go outside on certain days this summer. One party thinks the answer is to drill, drill, drill — open all federal lands to drilling. This was evident in debates last year. The other party wants to explore other sources of energy and pass bills subsidizing non-fossil fuel energy.
Most Americans do not want to be crippled by medical bills. One party paved the way for the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services to negotiate lower costs for 10 drugs; the other party wants to repeal the Medicare Drug Price Negotiation program of the Inflation Reduction Act. Both parties want to fix health insurance but cannot agree on a solution because one party is looking out for poor people and the other party is looking out for poor insurance companies.
Most Americans are concerned about the debt in America. One party wants to reduce the money allocated to the Internal Revenue Service and cut social services and government agencies — then cut taxes favoring the wealthy. The other party believes the IRS should be strengthened to collect the money owed (which will lower the debt) and strengthen social services and government agencies. I received $10 a week back in the last tax cuts, less than any multimillionaire. I would gladly give it back if our government could create policies that look out for the average American.
Most Americans are concerned about the border and the serious influx of migrants, who are claiming asylum because they come from a country full of despair. But no party is working on a humane bill to fix this. This is the bipartisanship job of Congress.
— Marie Slowinski, Oak Lawn
US should support cease-fire
All the good that President Joe Biden’s administration has done in the last three years will be erased and forgotten by voters if he doesn’t distance the U.S. from the cruelty of Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s blind bombing of innocent civilians in Gaza and elsewhere.
All are cowardly acts of war. Civilians in Gaza and now Lebanon are exhausted by war, and so are we. This is not a question of Democratic or Republican support for the Middle East conflict. It is a question of understanding right from wrong.
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Biden and his staff understand very well, as do many in both parties, that the abuse of Palestinians began decades before Hamas ever existed. Voters of many persuasions understand this as well. While aid for Ukraine languishes in the House, Biden approved two sales in December of emergency weapons to Israel totaling more than $200 million.
Netanyahu is very clear. He and his far-right coalition have never been interested in a two-state solution. For all the above reasons, the U.S. needs to stand clearly and publicly in the United Nations Security Council and vote “yes” to a permanent cease-fire in Gaza. This is not a political solution but a humane solution to the deepening need in the Middle East for security and peace. If the conflict is left unchecked, the United States will find itself pulled like quicksand into a war that no voter of any persuasion wants.
Our trail of tears in Vietnam and Iraq should have taught us that lies and war propaganda never work. We cannot afford to repeat those mistakes.
— Karlene Mostek, Chicago
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