Obamacare
Virginia’s 2nd District U.S. Rep. Jen Kiggans has been bragging about her efforts to extend Affordable Care Act tax credits.
This seems odd because the ACA, also known as Obamacare, was roundly reviled by the GOP when it became law in 2010, with many congressional Republicans pledging to repeal it. But Obamacare lived on because it steadily proved its worth. In 2021, lawmakers strengthened ACA tax credits in response to COVID-19 with a bill passed only by Democrats. (Not one Republican backed the bill.) Now, after the recent passage of the GOP’s so-called “Big Beautiful Bill” and the resulting chaos, those ACA tax credits are nearing expiration. And when they expire, many Virginians will be hurt with higher health insurance premiums.
Enter Republican Kiggans with a warning: “We can’t pull the rug out from under hardworking families … ” I think it is extremely revealing that our Republican U.S. representative sees the necessity of backing the Democrats against Republicans who still oppose the ACA.
I agree with Kiggans that significant steps should be taken to prevent the damage to American families that could result from continued GOP resistance to Obamacare, a solid and beneficial Democratic-sponsored law proven effective for over 15 years. And I think there is an important lesson for all of us to learn. If we really want good governance, then we should make sure Democrats do the governing.
Gary Ollila, Chesapeake
Political violence
What is the variable that has caused the aggressive, violent politics in the past decade that was not there before? Easy. Enter an old man onto the national political scene and I don’t mean former President Joe Biden.
Before that same old man became the leader of the Republican Party, they were led by U.S. Sen. John McCain — one of the great patriots in our history. I didn’t always agree with him, but one of the things I did agree with him on was his open rejection of calling opposing Democrats “the enemy.” Think about it, my Republican friends. That is the kind of man you need to lead your party now if you truly want the political “temperature to be toned down.” President Donald Trump is not that man.
Maury Neville, Chesapeake
Fraud
Re “Decency” (Your View, Sept. 1): It is so easy (and commonplace) to write an article and leave off a key word that changes the entire meaning. There were two examples of that in the opinion page on Sept. 1.
One of those was the letter on decency. In that article the writer talks of the Trump administration having “under attack” such things as our universities, Social Security, Medicaid, Medicare and the U.S. Agency for International Development. The writer points out the reason is that they are thought to be “woke” or too expensive.
If the writer told the whole truth about this topic, he would have made it clear to the reader that the purpose of the cutting back of funding to these entities is to eliminate the massive fraud, which costs us, the taxpayers, millions of dollars each year. I don’t know about you, but I cannot afford to pay for those fraudulent expenses. Let’s tell the whole story.
Jim Crutchfield, Virginia Beach
Confession
As usual with the Trump administration, every accusation is a confession.
Accusing the National Park Service of being “under the influence of a divisive, race-centered ideology,” a March executive order has resulted in the removal of texts or photographs that educate visitors on the oppression and violence endured by Blacks, Native Americans and other minority communities throughout U.S. history. Such attempts to erase historical memory promote exactly the divisive, race-centered ideology of white supremacy to which the administration is entirely devoted.
Steve Baggarly, Norfolk
