People before the Pentagon
While members of the Republican majority are competing to see who can make the deepest cuts, there is a budget proposal before Congress that would boost the economy for all of us while cutting the number of people in poverty in half. It's the People's Budget, proposed by the Congressional Progressive Caucus. The People's Budget invests in safe and productive infrastructure, education, affordable housing, health care and nutrition, child care, and working family tax credits. It calls for increasing the minimum wage.
These investments will create 3.6 million jobs, and set us on a path to cut poverty in half in 10 years. The People's Budget invests $2 trillion in infrastructure spending, expanding rural broadband, universal Pre-K and free college tuition at state and community colleges.
Every year without fail our elected representatives give over half of the discretionary budget to the Pentagon, leaving less than half to be divided up to fund education, healthcare, environmental spending, infrastructure, and everything else.
M J Sanches
San Francisco
Thanks to retired nurse
I just wanted to add my thanks to Val Robb for her years of dedicated service at Ward 86 ["Longtime AIDS, hep C fighter retires," July 6]. I remember meeting Robb when she first came to the clinic. She was always upbeat, knowledgeable, and friendly to those in her care for HIV and hepatitis C. She helped me in more ways that I can describe. I remember when I was trying to get the new treatment Harvoni, for hep C. Robb, already one of my caregivers, became a champion to me. I did not want to get a liver biopsy, which was required at the time to get the new drug. Let's just put it this way, I'm a coward. Robb convinced me to have the procedure and walked me over to the main hospital and held my hand while the doctors extracted a small piece of my liver. She filled out all the necessary paperwork, petitioned the insurance company and government to pay for the new drug, and with her persistence I was eventually approved to receive this very expensive life-saving treatment.
Without her help, knowledge, and determination I would probably not have been approved for the drug while it was still so new. I am now cleared of hep C. She is, and always will be, an awesome lady and a hero in my life. I hope to see her at some of the anti-Trump-Pence demonstrations. There is one coming up on July 15. Sadly, it seems we will be losing two heroes from Ward 86, not only Robb but Dr. Dan Wlodarczyk �" he has been my primary care physician for over 20 years �" is also retiring. I will miss both of them very much and thank them for the rest of my life.
Tom Battipaglia
San Francisco
Don't sign tobacco ballot measure
There's a campaign afoot, likely funded by the tobacco industry, to get signatures for a ballot measure to repeal the new law ending the sale of menthol and other flavors in all tobacco products sold in San Francisco. I urge the community not to sign on. The law was passed unanimously by the Board of Supervisors, after thorough consideration of the evidence. The effort was led by African-American advocates because menthol has had a stranglehold on their community and plays an outsize role in smoking initiation, addiction, and its deadly consequences. E-cigarettes come in thousands of flavors, and are luring middle schoolers into nicotine dependence. More kids are now using e-cigs than conventional ones. Those who do so are far more likely to progress to conventional cigarettes. This new law will save lives. Obviously, we've hit a nerve and the tobacco industry is worried about shoring up its replacement smokers and its profits. Don't let this corporate monster run roughshod over the will of the people of San Francisco and the supervisors who represent us.
Naphtali Offen
San Francisco