Letters to the editor: Trump rally, Republican Party, Arkoosh for AG, tax relief

Trump rally

I use over-the-air TV and I was flipping through the channels when I came across Donald Trump holding one of his rallies. Saturday Night Live couldn’t top this program. Mr. Trump was accusing his opponents and the press of thwarting free speech. This coming from someone who severely blacklists anyone who disagrees with him on anything such as Mo Brooks, Adam Kinzinger, Liz Cheney, and the list goes on and on. He also warned the audience of communists and socialists as being almost anyone who disagreed with him. This is very similar to Joe McCarthy from the 1950s who at least was never elected president. When I was a kid in the 1960s, I heard stories of “kings and presidents” who had to be locked up in mental hospitals. The mental hospitals have disappeared, while a real-life ex-president is running around loose wanting the entire nation to worship him.

Sidney Asker, Boise

Republican Party

Imagine reading about a Third World country where a deposed leader claimed election results were fraudulent (claims rejected by 62 courts, including judges from his own party); threatened officials to “find more votes” and nominate fake electors; chastened his Attorney General; incited an armed mob; tried to order two federal departments to seize voting machines; and, said his vice president should be hanged, apparently for upholding his constitutional duty.

Then you realize… this isn’t Chad, Bangladesh or Paraguay, but the USA! Furthermore, polling indicates that the authoritarians, sycophants and pathological liars who enabled this sociopath would STILL vote for him in 2024. You wonder: how could this happen HERE? How could a once proud party that championed individual initiative, family values and national pride devolve into a snake pit of bad actors committed to dismantling democracy — through violence or edict — to achieve their own agendas? Finally, you ponder: are there enough Liz Cheneys and Adam Kinzingers to brace the seawall; e.g. to name this plague for what it is, to shame dark operatives, and provide a path back to sanity for the mainstream party — before our nation’s 235-year experiment is swept away by an irreversible tide?

Stephen Banick, Boise

Tax relief

The governor has promised tax relief in his next term and it’s far past time to target relief to working-class families.

Idaho has reduced the number of tax brackets from seven several years ago to four. However, our current code has three different brackets for the first $5,000 in taxable income. This can be simplified by increasing the standard deduction by $1,000 and doing away with the 1% bracket. Then reducing tax on the 4.5% bracket to 3% will leave Idaho with a two-bracket system: 3% on the first $4,000 in taxable income and 6% above that.

Idaho also needs to increase its child tax credit from the paltry $205 to $500 or $600 to be truly pro-family. In addition, the governor should follow through on his first-term promise to eliminate the grocery tax. While these tax cuts would provide some benefit to all Idahoans, they’d make a huge difference to those who are struggling most right now.

This term, the governor’s tax policies have made Idaho a better place to start and run a business. By pushing tax cuts that benefit working families, the governor can make Idaho a better place to raise children and move into the middle class.

Adam Graham, Boise

Arkoosh for AG

Wayne Hoffman of the Idaho Freedom Foundation and his obsequious hand-picked GOP chairperson, Dorothy Moon will soon be blasting Idaho airwaves, billboards and mailboxes with foul names, unfounded accusations and unflattering distorted images of a very good man, Tom Arkoosh. Tom is running for Idaho Attorney General as a Democrat because he wants Idaho to have a healthy two-party system and he wants to uphold Idaho law and defend our state. Hoffman’s and Moon’s campaign will be an obvious attempt to influence Idahoans to vote for their favorite political hack, lobbyist Raul Labrador. They will use intimidation and thuggery to make you think Arkoosh is a card-carrying leftist who is hell bent to turn Idaho into a communist wasteland. The fact is, Arkoosh wants the office of the people’s attorney to uphold the Idaho Constitution and not be a soapbox for bully pulpit right-wing demagoguery.

Dick Bennett, Boise