In response to Dave Kolenc’s letter ”Remember Reschenthaler’s actions when voting” (March 20, TribLIVE), the reasons Rep. Guy Reschenthaler did not vote for the so-called coronavirus relief bill was that only 9% of the nearly $2 trillion in spending is dedicated to directly fighting the virus and much of the other 91% is pork — $270 million for the National Endowment for the Arts and National Endowment for the Humanities, $1.5 billion for Amtrak, $20 million to update the Affordable Care Act exchange technology and $35.5 billion for increased Affordable Care Act subsidies, funding for the Title X family planning program (which includes abortion) and loan forgiveness for “socially disadvantaged farmers,” whatever that means.
The majority of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s San Francisco district’s projected $653 million budget deficit over the next two years will be erased. The $350 billion allocated for state and local governments, with California carving out $42.2 billion of the total sum, equates a blue-state bailout, which will help pay for their budget deficits. In my opinion, none of this is “coronavirus relief,” and neither were other pork-laden so-called stimulus packages.
Before criticizing a vote it would be wise to research what was in the bill, because there is “more than meets the eye” in these misleadingly named bills. Reschenthaler did the right thing by voting no.
Karen Bills
Salem