Letters to the Editor: This reader felt the call to speak out against the ‘Big Beautiful Bill'
To the editor: When I retired from my teaching career, I decided that I was going to get more actively involved in trying to make a difference through communication in written form. I had already educated students in history for 16 years and now I wanted to reach a bigger audience. Although writing was rewarding, I felt that I still needed to continue to communicate verbally to try to make a difference.
To that effect, I have, on three occasions, made calls to lawmakers to express my opinion about legislation. I called countless federal legislators during President Trump's first term to try to keep the Affordable Care Act from being repealed. I still remember my joy in watching Sen. John McCain cast the deciding vote.
Twice now in the last two months, I have called every senator over two bills, the first being the SAVE Act. Yesterday, I completed 100 calls to try to convince the senators that parts of the 'Big Beautiful Bill' are devastating ('Senate Republicans seek tougher Medicaid cuts and lower SALT deduction in Trump's big bill,' June 17). The huge cuts to social programs like Medicaid, Medicare and the Affordable Care Act are overwhelming and the amounts seem to change daily. My biggest fear is the provision on Page 562 that few know about and mention (including your article). Although the details are confusing, the effects are clear: The power of the courts, which so far have been the people's only recourse, will essentially be weakened and the results could lead to full dictatorship.
Lynn Lorenz, Newport Beach
..
To the editor: The simple answer to avoiding the cruel and unnecessary cuts to programs and services funded by the federal government is to let the Trump tax cuts expire ('Republican fractures multiply over Trump's megabill,' June 19). Our priorities should be the poor, those in danger of losing healthcare, school lunch programs, national parks and climate change, not continuing tax breaks for the wealthy.
Patricia Koch, Long Beach
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Forbes
18 minutes ago
- Forbes
Trump Criticizes Windmills In Latest Attack Against Wind Energy
President Donald Trump blasted green tax breaks and windmills in a rant about his signature budget package moving through Congress, tacking onto his longstanding criticism of the turbines even as they have become an increasingly cost-effective form of energy. US President Donald Trump waves as he boards Air Force One at Morristown Municipal Airport in ... More Morristown, New Jersey, on June 21, 2025 as he returns to the White House from his golf club in Bedminster, New Jersey. Photo by MANDEL NGAN/AFP via Getty Images Trump said in a Truth Social post he 'HATED' green tax credits in the 'Big Beautiful Bill,' saying the cuts are largely a 'giant SCAM.' The bill, a massive measure currently in the Senate that will extend tax cuts passed by Trump during his first term, will remove or limit tax credits for electric vehicles and home energy efficiency if passed, as well as create gradual, year-by-year cuts to wind and solar farm tax credits. Trump said windmills 'are the most expensive and inefficient energy in the world' and are 'destroying the beauty of the environment.' The president also claimed, without evidence, windmills are '10 times more costly than any other energy,' taking issue with government subsidies linked to turbines. Get Forbes Breaking News Text Alerts : We're launching text message alerts so you'll always know the biggest stories shaping the day's headlines. Text 'Alerts' to (201) 335-0739 or sign up here . What Has Trump Said About Windmills ? Shortly after taking office, the president said the government would not subsidize new windmill farms and added he doesn't 'want even one built' during his second term. Trump called wind turbines the 'most expensive energy' that only works 'with massive government subsidies, which we will no longer pay.' Trump could potentially impact windmill production on federal lands, but not on privately owned plots. Trump has also falsely claimed windmills kill whales, though there is no evidence supporting the claim about the mammals and offshore turbines. Not likely. The Department of Energy has said 'wind and solar projects are now more economically competitive than gas, geothermal, coal, or nuclear facilities,' though windmills in locations lacking wind could be an exception. Onshore wind turbines saw global costs of energy production fall by 68% in 2021, according to a report from the International Renewable Energy Agency, which noted onshore capacity increased four-fold from 2010 to 2021. The agency also reported onshore wind project costs fell by 13% while offshore wind projects fell by 9% in 2020. Key Background Trump once lost a legal battle in which he sought to block the construction of an offshore wind farm in view of a golf course project of his in Scotland. The president lost in court and was required to pay over $290,000 in legal fees to the Scottish government. His scrutiny of windmills is a change from his first term, when former Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke said he was 'very bullish on offshore wind,' adding the harnessing of the energy source was 'a big part of the Trump Administration's made in America energy strategy.' Trump's Tax Cuts Would Raise Deficit By $2.8 Trillion, New Estimate Suggests (Forbes) Trump Calls Windmills 'An Economic And Environmental Disaster' In Latest Rant Against Turbines (Forbes)
Fox News
24 minutes ago
- Fox News
HHS considering revised alcohol guidelines, report suggests
All times eastern FOX News Radio Live Channel Coverage WATCH LIVE: Trump returns to Washington to meet with his National Security Council
San Francisco Chronicle
27 minutes ago
- San Francisco Chronicle
Less than 20% of troops deployed to L.A. are on the ground. A former commander calls that ‘awful'
Less than 20% of the nearly 5,000 National Guard and Marine troops deployed to Los Angeles were actually on the ground in the city as of earlier this week, according to text messages by a state official with direct knowledge of staffing. That level is so low a former National Guard commander called it 'awful' in an interview with the Chronicle and questioned whether the $134 million deployment is justified. Of the 4,946 National Guard members and Marines deployed by President Donald Trump to Los Angeles in response to protests of immigration raids, just 978 were in the city, the state official with firsthand knowledge of National Guard staffing levels wrote Wednesday in the text messages obtained by the Chronicle. 'Federalized National Guard and USMC forces are grossly underutilized,' the state official wrote to another state official. 'That's at 19.77% utilization rate. Insane.' The officials were discussing how the deployment was pulling soldiers away from the National Guard's wildfire mitigation work. The Chronicle is not naming the officials in accordance with its policy on anonymous sources. The former National Guard commander, Brig. Gen. Peter Cross, told the Chronicle that the less than 20% rate is consistent with what he's heard in his role as president of the National Guard Association of California. Even accounting for soldiers working in shifts, he said, soldiers should be working at a rate much closer to 100%. 'It's awful. … So far as I understand, we're not even approaching, under that shifting model, full utilization of the soldiers,' he said. 'That's extremely concerning to me as a former military commander." Democrats have been saying for weeks that the deployment is a waste of money. 'You really have to use the National Guard as a last resort,' said Cross, a retired military police officer who was deployed to the 1992 Los Angeles riots and has served in Iraq and Afghanistan. 'This is literally the most expensive option we as a society, as a country, can utilize.' Many of the troops deployed in Southern California in response to the protests are stationed at the Joint Forces Training Base in Los Alamitos, where the military has constructed massive tents to house them. The base is about 30 miles from downtown Los Angeles in Orange County. It typically is used for the National Guard and Army Reserves. Trump began federalizing National Guard troops, who are normally under governors' control, nearly two weeks ago in response to protests over aggressive immigration raids in Los Angeles. Gov. Gavin Newsom and Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass opposed the deployment, saying that local and state police were sufficiently staffed to handle the protests. Trump argued that the protests had gotten out of hand. 'If Governor Gavin Newscum, of California, and Mayor Karen Bass, of Los Angeles, can't do their jobs, which everyone knows they can't, then the Federal Government will step in and solve the problem, RIOTS & LOOTERS, the way it should be solved!!!' the president wrote in a post on his social media website on Saturday, June 7. Shortly after the post, Trump issued an executive order federalizing 2,000 members of the National Guard for 60 days to respond to protests. The order does not specify that the troops be deployed in California or Los Angeles. Trump has since called up additional National Guard members and has also deployed 700 Marines to respond. The protests in Los Angeles, which grew after Trump deployed the troops, have since calmed significantly. Earlier this week, Bass lifted a curfew she had imposed last week for the area of downtown that has seen the most protests. Newsom has sued to regain control of the National Guard troops. He argues that Trump's federalizing of the troops is illegal and amounts to a dangerous overreach by the president. On Thursday, the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that Trump could retain control of the Guard troops while legal challenges proceed in lower courts. 'This brazen abuse of power by a sitting President inflamed a combustible situation putting our people, our officers, and the National Guard at risk,' Newsom said in a speech several days after Trump deployed the troops. 'When Donald Trump sought blanket authority to commandeer the National Guard, he made that order apply to every state in this nation. … California may be first — but it clearly won't end here. Other states are next.' Most of the 300 National Guard members who had been working on a vegetation management team called Joint Task Force Rattlesnake have been taken off the wildfire prevention work as part of the Los Angeles deployment, according to Newsom's office. Newsom has also criticized the deployment for moving National Guard troops who had been doing drug interdiction work at the border. 'You just pulled National Guard I placed at the border who were stopping fentanyl smuggling,' Newsom wrote on social media in response to a post from a Trump administration official. 'Now they're twiddling their thumbs in LA.' Lt. Carl Trujillo, a spokesperson for the California Military Department, referred all questions about the deployment to U.S. Army North Public Affairs. He said that when National Guard troops were deployed to assist with wildfire recovery in Los Angeles earlier this year, they were stationed at the Rose Bowl and a base in Malibu, not the training base in Los Alamitos. He said the base is not typically used to station large numbers of troops for extended periods of time because it is relatively small. U.S. Army North Public Affairs declined to respond to questions about staffing levels and whether it was typical that less than 20% of the deployed troops would be used in Los Angeles on any given day, citing security concerns. The office said that the National Guard troops are being housed at Los Alamitos, while the Marines are located at Naval Weapons Station Seal Beach, also in Orange County. Photos posted online by the military show the tents at the base in Los Alamitos, with some housing rows upon rows of cots and folding tables set up like a cafeteria. Images taken by a Chronicle photographer from a helicopter that flew near the base show multiple massive tents and other temporary structures that have been erected on the base. Other photos obtained by the Chronicle from inside the base also show soldiers in fatigues walking around the area as well as construction projects with cranes and wooden pallets. A nearby resident, who declined to give his name, said he has a good view of the base from his backyard. He said it's common for troops to stage there for training. He said troops had camped in smaller tents when they arrived, but now are staying in a massive tent that he estimated is longer than a football field but about the same width. The resident described the National Guard troops as 'wonderful neighbors' even if they make noise early in the morning. Reached by phone Thursday afternoon, he said he could hear troops marching down the middle of a road near his home. Cross said it's not surprising that National Guard soldiers would be stationed at the base in Los Alamitos and that it's normal protocol to build massive tents to house soldiers. But he noted that the activity at the base underscores why deploying the Guard is also the most expensive option available in a situation like this. It also takes a personal toll on the soldiers who are deployed, who must leave their families, their jobs and their educational pursuits behind. Typically the Guard should be deployed only when all local law enforcement options are exhausted. That doesn't seem to be the case here, he said. 'This melodramatic talk about people worried about the military shooting someone or being more violent than is necessary — I'm just not worried about that because of the training we have,' he said. 'I'm just skeptical whether we were needed.' In his current role with the California National Guard, Cross oversees the Youth and Community Program, which runs educational programs for struggling teens. The programs have continued to function, he said, even as many of the soldiers who work on them have been deployed. But if the deployment is still happening in a few weeks when the new school session starts, he's worried he'll have to turn more troubled teens away. 'When you're called up, you're pulled up from your employer, from your life,' Cross said. 'You want it to have value, you want it to have purpose, and if you're sitting in your armory, not tasked, that will erode your morale.'
