Letters to the Editor (July 10, 2025)

Bad news for generations

Editor:

There are three branches of government but at the federal level there are four power centers.

The legislative branch: Currently controlled by the cult that controls the White House. It has ceded much of its power to the executive branch and remains silent on critical issues.

When the Trump cult did not control Congress any hint of corruption was immediately called out. Now? Trump engages in multiple business deals using his office to enrich himself without a murmur of dissent from his cult in Congress.

Judicial branch: At the top, it is in the hands of six members of the same cult (euphemistically referred to as conservative judges by the press) that runs the executive branch and a spineless Congress. Many federal judges in the lower courts were appointed by Trump. Some are actually qualified!

Some actually understand their primary duty is to uphold the Constitution, but some of them view their loyalty to the cult above their duty to the Constitution

When reading about a controversial court decision, find out who appointed that judge or judges to get a better feel for their political leanings. Many federal judicial cult members embrace Trump’s views of the law.

The executive branch is headed by a convicted criminal. His regime daily takes steps to expand its power over the American people including sending active-duty military into states along with armed ICE personnel who do not identify themselves when confronting people.

The fourth power center? The Federal Reserve Bank (“The Fed”). It is not controlled by Trump, and can’t be. Its board cannot be removed by presidents. Each board member was appointed to a 14-year term by the president at the time of their appointment (voted on by the Senate).

The Fed makes decisions about the economy based on real data and unbiased analysis and is not beholden to the executive branch.

Bad news for your descendants: Trump’s proposed budget with a $2 trillion deficit built in means the national debt will keep growing and growing. Your descendants will be on the hook for it, one way or another.

James Rickey

Los Lunas

Exploding national debt

Editor:

The movie “Three Kings” follows four rogue U.S. soldiers who are hunting for a fortune in gold supposedly hidden by Saddam Hussein after the first Gulf War in 1991. A gunfight with locals ensues, three of the G.I.s escape but one, played by Mark Wahlberg, is captured.

The locals tie him up, jam a plastic CD case in his mouth and then pour crude oil down his throat. He survives the moment but never really recovers.

It seems the GOP is forcing oil down all our throats with their Big Bullying Backstabbing bill.

I call it Big because the GOP has stuffed most of their Project 2025 fascist fantasies into the thing. “Bullying” because Trump has threatened his GOP flunkies with various horrors if they don’t vote for it. “Backstabbing” because the GOP figures that most voters will not know what is actually in its 900+ pages. Basically, the bill takes money away from vital programs for the non-wealthy and then uses those funds for tax cuts to the very rich.

The bill will explode our national debt by $4 trillion over the next 10 years. Most of the objections center around the GOP plan to cut $1 trillion from Medicaid funds in a pretense of paying for the tax cuts. As well as stripping health care from millions, these cuts are expected to force the closure of many rural hospitals and 25 percent of nursing homes.

But Trump is really drooling at the chance to wipe out the U.S. renewable energy industry. He says it’s unreliable, and climate change is a hoax, and wind turbines give you cancer, but he’s also gotten millions in campaign donations from the oil and gas guys. (Apparently, he’s completely ignorant of the existence of batteries.)

His grotesque bill cuts $565 billion in subsidies from cheaper, cleaner energy sources like solar, wind and geothermal. At the same time, the $575 billion that fossil fuels get in direct and indirect subsidies from the U.S. government seem set to sail on forever.

I can almost feel the oil oozing down my gullet.

Laura F. Sanchez

Los Lunas