Letters: Voters need assurance that Measure A funds will be spent properly

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Voters need assurance
on Measure A funds

The votes are in, and Measure A won. Congratulations, “Yes on Measure A” team. You ran a good campaign, especially county Supervisor Susan Ellenberg, who did a yeoman’s work of spreading the “Yes on A” message. I opposed it, but it’s important to acknowledge the win.

I hope Santa Clara County sees the final Measure A results and the message they are sending: There was sizeable opposition. People, hard-working, cash-strapped people, are struggling, and they have something to say. We need to eat and pay our bills for essentials like water and PG&E. Just as Democrats at the national level paid little attention to what the working people were trying to tell them in 2024 (and subsequently helped make No. 45 No. 47), so too it seemed that many working people were not listened to with the Measure A campaign.

We want assurances that Santa Clara County will spend this and future monies wisely.

Tina Morrill
San Jose

Guard Measure A
funds from Super Bowl

Measure A appears to have passed, which is meant to help alleviate the budgetary cliff our health care services are seeing due to the Trump administration. The lack of spending requirements, however, and the reporting that Santa Clara County also faces a massive fiscal hurdle in funding Super Bowl preparation, has me worried that our tax dollars may instead go toward a sports event rather than our hospitals.

With Santa Clara County battling the administration over funding to cover Super Bowl preparations and many of the fund-generating events being planned for San Francisco instead of Santa Clara County, it seems likely that we are going to get stuck with the bill — all for an event we didn’t request nor will we profit from.

Perhaps the county should look at pushing for the Super Bowl to move to alleviate the budget risk and ensure our taxes go where they should.

Christopher Dooner
Sunnyvale

Wins mean Dems can
claim right side of law

The blue wave at the polls on Nov. 4 comes as drone strikes continue on Venezuelan boats and Donald Trump escalates talk of war. Congress is right to demand that Trump abide by the limits of the War Powers Resolutions that bar any president from unilaterally declaring war.

Further, this demand should also extend to Gaza, where Israel continues to kill Palestinians with U.S. weapons in violation of the ceasefire agreement. California Sens. Adam Schiff and Alex Padilla previously failed to denounce arms shipments to Israel. Such complicity in arming genocide as well as providing military intelligence constitutes participation in hostilities. Such U.S. actions run counter to the War Powers Resolution and the Leahy Laws that bar the U.S. from arming human rights violators.

The blue wave election signals that timid Democrats need no longer avoid taking a stand on the right side of history and U.S. law.

Brian Rawson
Palo Alto

Cheney’s death should
bring Iraq War reckoning

Re: “Former VP Dick Cheney dies at age 84” (Page A1, Nov. 5).

Donald Trump is a master of TV screens. Even the death of one of the most influential people of our time, Dick Cheney, was minimized and relegated to the bottom or back pages.

Cheney was a shrewd businessman who viewed politics through the lens of profit. He was aided and abetted by Donald Rumsfeld, who shoved George W. Bush into the most destructive war of our times in Iraq. It not only drained resources but also made us ashamed in the eyes of the rest of the world.

Most news outlets had relegated the news and the consequences suffered by us due to the grievous intervention. I hope someone writes about it. The current history was written at the time of war, but now is the time to reflect and learn some hard lessons.

Kohli Singh
San Jose

Republicans should put
up health care plan

Has anyone noticed that the Republican Party — which just a few months ago was gleefully firing people who work for the government without notice, violating laws and norms that have existed for decades and calling government workers the most vile names — is now shedding crocodile tears for the same government workers.

The other party wants to protect the health care of millions of Americans. There is a deal to be had if we actually had a deal-maker in the White House.

If they have a plan, let’s see it before the midterms, so we can all judge it before the next presidential election.

Thomas Scott
Morgan Hill

GOP’s plan is only
to destroy Obamacare

You would think that Republicans, in their over 800-page Project 2025, would have made some plans for health care.

All they seem willing to do is destroy Obamacare because the other team made it. Where is even the concept of a plan from Donald Trump?

Larry Guernsey
San Jose