Letters: KC readers discuss Eric Schmitt’s wins, the Child Tax Credit and Mike Parson

Go, Eric Schmitt

We are now in calendar year three of COVID-19, and some in government are refusing to give up the new power and control they accumulated over the last two years.

Missouri is leading the fight against mandates for masks, vaccines, lockdowns and other measures implemented by COVID-19 tyrannists. This is all because of the leadership of Missouri Attorney General Eric Schmitt. He is not only leading in Missouri — he is leading a national coalition to stop these mandates. Missourians should be proud that our attorney general’s fight to protect health care workers from vaccine mandates is going all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court.

Schmitt has been fighting and winning against COVID-19 tyrannists in Jackson County and elsewhere, and we hope his winning streak continues.

- Preston Smith, Blue Springs

Greatest needs

COVID-19 is on the rise again in Missouri and elsewhere, and it is a tough time for working families. Cold weather and staying at home add to the stress for all families and put an added strain on their budgets.

In 2021, Congress passed a major expansion of the Child Tax Credit. This change made the full CTC available for the first time to 27 million of the lowest-income children, giving families a monthly payment. But this new CTC expired Dec. 31, putting millions of children and families at risk just as the new COVID-19 surge threatens them with additional financial hardships.

The House included its extension for another year in the Build Back Better bill, but the Senate has failed to act. Sens. Roy Blunt and Josh Hawley must pass a CTC extension with permanent full refundability for all low-income families and the monthly payment option in early 2022.

- Sarah Miller, University City, Missouri

In a name

Evidently, “normal tourist visit,” as GOP Rep. Andrew Clyde of Georgia called the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection, is modern slang for seditious conspiracy.

- Tom Witwer, Overland Park

Let’s get real

Dear Sen. Roger Marshall:

Please stop trying to score political points by harassing Dr. Anthony Fauci and pursuing inane lines of questioning for political gain. (Jan. 13, 8A, “Roger Marshall’s COVID games are worse than moronic, Dr. Fauci”) It is embarrassing that as a senator from our great state of Kansas, you insist on pushing a partisan agenda of lies and misinformation.

Please encourage people to get vaccinated, wear masks inside public places and use physical distancing to slow the spread of COVID-19. Help people understand that science and research provide new information that informs us about better ways to approach issues and update recommendations. Focus your efforts on being better informed about the issues by trying to understand all viewpoints — including those of your constituents who disagree with you — and thereby acting in the best interest of the citizens of Kansas.

You are not an expert in infectious disease nor immunology. Show Fauci some modicum of respect. Please stop behaving like a moron and embarrassing the citizens of Kansas. We have real issues that call for smart people to work together. We need you to learn about the issues and focus on trying to do good by helping people and solving real problems.

- Deborah Tady, Mission

Game on

Wow, I thought Wisconsin had the worst senator in the country. Now I find that we are No. 2, after Kansas. You want to trade?

- Charles Bylsma, Madison, Wisconsin

Tried to rig it

It seems there was a lot of shadiness in the 2020 election, but it was all by Donald Trump supporters. Evidently, they were so sure Trump would lose that preparations were made well in advance to cheat, and cheat they did in every way imaginable. (Jan. 14, KansasCity.com, “Michigan AG asks feds to investigate fake GOP electors”)

Fortunately for the country, none of these ideas worked, and surprise: Trump lost. Over and over again, he lost. Even when he was given the 2016 election, he still had lost the popular vote.

So here is a man who no matter how many bankruptcies and losses he’s had, he still cannot admit he is a loser.

- Richard Clyde Lumpkin, Prairie Village

So Gorsuch figures

During the Supreme Court’s oral arguments on large-employer vaccination mandates, Justice Neil Gorsuch minimized the dangers of COVID-19 by saying that people also die from influenza. Apparently, Gorsuch has not considered the facts about mortality from flu compared with COVID-19.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates that about 36,000 Americans died of influenza per year over the past decade. That’s fewer than 100 people a day. The latest average daily deaths from COVID-19 are more than 1,700.

Medical experts tell us that deaths from the coronavirus are at least 90% among unvaccinated people. In other words, if everyone were vaccinated, the average daily COVID-19 mortality could decrease to about 170 per day.

I can’t make a legal argument for or against vaccination mandates. But it is tragic that hundreds of people are dying every day because they weren’t vaccinated.

- Larry Skogerson, Mission Hills

Real ideas, please

We read that Missouri Gov. Mike Parson wants criminals to get more time in prison for violent offenses. (Jan. 13, 1A, “Parson will seek harsher sentences to fight violent crime”) Governor, I don’t know if you ever took Criminology 101, but some guy with a Glock doesn’t stand outside a convenience store and think about how much time he’ll get if caught after a robbery. And someone in a manic state with a gun doesn’t contemplate time in jail if he shoots his wife or neighbor.

More jail time is not prevention and doesn’t address root causes. Until we address those root causes, they will persist. Criminals for the most part don’t think like normal people. It is sad that Parson wishes to keep the feds away when it’s politically convenient but wants more so-called “justice” as well, not to mention looser gun laws. How can we have it both ways, Governor?

Tougher laws appeal to emotion but do not afford the desired results. While we’re at it, why not require convenience stores and others to keep minimum cash and install bulletproof glass barriers around cash registers to stop criminals from even considering robbery? That is a reasonable idea to save lives. Now, it is just too easy to rob these places, including banks. I’ve wondered this for years.

- Herman Kirkpatrick, Leawood