Explain benefits of Build Back Better

The media (and the Democrats) could do a better job of portraying the costs and contents of the Build Back Better bill, which hopefully will pass by a simple majority via the reconciliation process. The contents of the bill should be described, including an extension of the tremendously significant child tax credit, important environmental spending to combat harmful effects of climate change, funding to lower the high costs of child care, expanded Medicare coverage and benefits, free or low-cost community college, and many other programs. And all this and more will continue for 10 years, and the cost will be mainly covered by higher taxes on corporations and the very wealthy who have not paid their fair share for decades.

Instead of depicting the bill as a $3.5 trillion program over 10 years, why not say its cost is $350 billion a year? Compare its $350 billion price tag for vital social programs with the $778 billion spent by the government in 2020 for military weapons and programs. That $778 billion military spending will no doubt go up each year as usual.

John Witeck

Kamehameha Heights

Hawaii needs funds for climate change

The Build Back Better bill would invest $13.2 billion federal dollars directly in Hawaii to create jobs, care for our kids and grandparents, and prepare our islands for climate change.

Yes, it would raise taxes on the ultra-rich and big corporations. But that is reasonable given that the wealthiest individuals and companies benefited the most from delays in climate policy and have long sidestepped their fair share of the taxes we all pay. To whom much is given, much is expected. In this time of great need, it is reasonable to expect that wealthiest individuals and companies to contribute towards the solution.

This Build Back Better bill is the next best chance our planet has to maintain a habitable environment, and a major opportunity to re-localize our economy. This is a big deal for everyone in Hawaii. That is why it is so disappointing that Rep. Ed Case is not supporting the bill.

Is Case really going to abandon us when we need him most?

Marti Townsend

Sierra Club of Hawai‘i

$3.5 trillion plan will cost $3.5 trillion

I propose we implement Critical Math Theory in our K-12 classrooms explaining President Joe Biden’s calculation that spending $3.5 trillion will cost nothing. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi claims it will cost zero dollars. According to my math, spending $3.5 trillion costs exactly $3.5 trillion.

Students also should be taught how adding 11 million people to our insurance rolls was supposed to lower my premiums, and how “free community college” works. I understand the desire to help people, but lying to do it doesn’t add up in my book.

Kris Schwengel

Hawaii Kai

Self-sufficiency vs. loss of empathy

A letter concerning people losing ability of self-sufficiency illustrates the rise of entitlement among the lucky (“People losing ability to be self-sufficient,” Star-Advertiser, Sept. 30).

It seems to me that people with power believe they can be blind to the pain and barriers faced by their fellow citizens on this planet. The letter uses a confusing unsourced statistic to indicate that all the hard-working people who are struggling don’t pay enough taxes, and that social programs to help them will be a waste of money. But tax cuts to the rich are working?

U.S. Rep. Ed Case is thus seen as the only sensible representative for Hawaii because he is standing in the way of passing meaningful social programs that are popular with the majority. The inequity in this nation is a byproduct of the same lack of empathy and foresight expressed in the letter.

Sara Marshall

Aiea

Nurses need more residency programs

Why are there nursing shortages in Hawaii? We have at least five Hawaii nursing programs with hundreds of yearly graduates but few provisions for graduates to enter our workforce.

New graduates are placed in an impossible position: They must compete for very limited nursing graduate residency hospital positions or work as nursing assistants for years, waiting for a job to open up while compromising their nursing skills, licenses and incomes.

This forces many to move to the mainland to enter a nursing graduate residency program to use their hard-earned degrees and skills. Many nursing graduates want to stay in Hawaii but cannot get the preferred two-year hospital work experience here to get hired.

Why not invest in our own nursing graduates and provide more of the needed training and experience for them here while ensuring the nursing shortage is addressed? Is it lack of funding? Leadership? Vision? What am I missing here?

Carol L. Nowak

Kaneohe

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