Articulate and concise

Thanks, and cheers to Amy Johnson from Austin, Texas, for her articulate and concise assessment in last Sunday’s Tribune Opinion section of the letters of Marge Lunders.

I had wondered if anyone else had noticed.

John Rice

Clarkston

Setting record straight

John Webb, I respond to your letters, not because I am sensitive, but because I want to set the record straight in comparison to your continued falsehoods.

For instance, when you say Joe Biden forced lockdowns, you forgot it was during the Trump administration when state governors mandated lockdowns. The president does not have the authority to mandate lockdowns except on federal property. This is a state’s rights issue. The federal government can recommend lockdowns, but cannot impose them.

We still are exporting more oil than we are importing, but we do import oil primarily on the East Coast because their refineries cannot process American light crude. Our fuel prices are based on the international price of oil since all oil is sold in the worldwide market. The lack of Russian oil on the international market has kept oil prices high. Still, American national fuel prices are slightly less than last year’s price.

Yes, inflation was high, but only for a short while. Again, remember the Federal Reserve had lowered the prime rate to near zero to keep the economy going. Congress authorized the stimulus checks to jump-start the economy. Did you refuse the checks? Now, inflation is around 3.4%.

I really do not think Donald Trump would have been able to withdraw from Afghanistan any better than Biden. After all, the withdrawal was based on an agreement Trump had made with the Taliban. We really should have gotten out of Afghanistan much sooner than we did.

Darn word limit.

Wayne Beebe

Pullman

Call for amendments

They’ve got you under your skin — or soon will if you’re prescribed opioids.

Reason.com reports that “H.R. 4531: Support for Patients and Communities Reauthorization Act” contains a provision for studying the use of general health-monitoring implant technology to, in Reason.com’s words, “track your use of medications, such as opioids, to make sure you’re not using them in frequencies and dosages frowned upon by bureaucrats.”

Reason.com cited this comment from the Cato Institute: “With such data in hand, misinformed anti-opioid crusaders in Congress will then take the next ‘logical’ step — legislation requiring all patients prescribed opioids for any reason to be remotely monitored (another example of ‘cops practicing medicine.’ ”)

Cato’s prediction is likely true given that the federal government already obliges opioid recipients, through their health providers, to sign a form rooted in an addiction treatment agreement. Recipients also agree to submit to urinalysis on demand.

H.R. 4531 has plenty of bipartisan support including Washington Democrats Marie Gluesenkamp Perez and Derek Kilmer. A Senate version is in the offing.

Neither Idaho representative currently appears as a co-sponsor but it’s hard to imagine anyone in the Idaho D.C. contingent except, perhaps, Mike Crapo having sufficient concern for our constitutional rights to oppose this affront to them.

Nevertheless, it’s up to we citizens to call upon our representatives and demand H.R. 4531 be amended to:

1. Remove the feasibility study.

2. Provide safeguards to keep our private health data out of the wrong hands, including those of the aforesaid representatives.

Thomas A. Hennigan

Asotin