Lawmakers are wrong to take campaign cash, give tax breaks to nursing home group

Isn’t it a shame that you can make millions in campaign contributions to the Illinois state Senate president and the Illinois speaker of the House and get your status changed from commercial property tax to a residential property tax and let the citizens of Illinois get stuck with $50 million to pay (“Nursing home industry gives big to Illinois Senate President Don Harmon, who goes to bat for it on bid for tax breaks” — Oct. 27)?

Those two and others have gotten campaign contributions from the Health Care Council, which represents nursing homes. Good thing Gov. J.B. Pritzker vetoed it Aug. 11, but now the Health Care Council wants the House and Senate to override the governor’s veto. The governor wrote that this is a “property tax break” that “passes the cost on to suburban Cook County homeowners and small businesses with the greatest impact felt in the south suburbs.”

Taxpayers need to wake up and protect themselves because surely the people we elected who should be protecting us are only out for themselves and their pocketbooks.

When are they going to do something for the seniors and poor and middle class? When they take millions in campaign contributions from the rich, they surely aren’t looking out for us. Make sure you contact your state representative and state senator and tell them: Do not override the governor’s veto.

Gerald Bernson, Tinley Park

Don’t pay school board members

I agree that members of the Board of Education should not be paid (“Say no to pay for Chicago school board members” — Oct. 30).

All that will mean is Stacy Davis Gates or some other CTU FOB (Friend of Brandon) will be paid.

Further, Chicago children aren’t learning to read, thousands of migrant children need ESL instruction, and more children are going private with those important private school scholarships.

So with dwindling funds, the last thing we should spend money on is paying board members. If you can’t volunteer your time for board meetings because you have a job, there are still plenty of ways to contribute to community education, such as your local PTA or local school council. 

Claude Rothschild, West Town

Condemn Hamas and Israeli government for murder

In her recent column, S.E. Cupp calls out those on the left who refuse to condemn Hamas for their murderous rampage on Oct. 7 (“Democrats have an antisemitism problem on the far left”).

She makes no mention of the sizeable group of Jewish people on the left who condemn the horrible murders inflicted by both Hamas and the Israeli government. I am one of those people.

Jerry Schenwar, Lincolnwood

Criticism of Israeli government is justified

Thank you for printing S.E. Cupp’s column “Democrats have an antisemitism problem on the far left”  (Oct. 26). She describes the far left wing of the Democrats and the far right wing of the Republican party as being equally appalling because they both deny facts.

I agree with her that the far left may have gone too far in their acceptance of erroneous facts, such as that Israel purposely bombed the hospital in Gaza. But to be critical of Israel is not the same thing as being antisemitic.

There is nothing wrong in asking for a ceasefire while cooler heads try to work out a solution for peace. She seems to think that asking for a ceasefire means giving Hamas a pass. Didn’t the United Nations ask for this?

Nothing in her column discusses the fact that American Jews have been disheartened by the administration of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for years. His encouragement of settlements into Palestinian territory and his attempts to dismiss the judicial branch hardly screams “democracy.”

She wrote that 25 years ago she would not have believed that any Republicans in Congress were white nationalists. But didn’t Nixon’s speechwriter, Pat Buchanan, run for President in 2000 after he stated that the Holocaust was exaggerated?

Cupp believes that far-right Republicans who are racist and far-left Democrats who are antisemitic are both relatively new things. Some Republicans have been racist for a long time. Democrats who criticize Israel are not antisemitic. They are criticizing policies by a far-right Israeli current administration.

Criticism is healthy for a democracy.

Jan Goldberg, Riverside

Do the hard work to house migrants

It is amazing the fantasies we try to tell ourselves regarding the migrant crisis in Chicago. We can’t hit “pause” on “accepting” migrants, as America’s worst Catholic, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott is sending them here every day. We can’t magically house them in “vacant buildings” as buildings have owners who have to be willing, and the buildings need showers and bathrooms to be habitable. We can’t ship them to other cities against their will or by trickery lest we become no better than the heartless bigots of the Lone Star state.

The only way to deal with these migrants is to do hard work. Shelter them the best we can and get them eligible to join our workforce as quickly as possible. The people on the front lines doing this are real heroes and they really don’t need the suggestion of half-baked non-solutions.

Don Anderson, Oak Park

New U.S. House speaker sides with extremists

There is one difference between new U.S. House Speaker Mike Johnson and his predecessor that worries me.  

U.S. Rep. Kevin McCarthy said a lot of goofy things that he didn’t really believe to keep the support of the extreme fringe of his slim Republican majority and keep things working in the House.  

When Mike Johnson says the same things, we can be certain that he believes these things to his core and that his actions will be defined by them.

Curt Fredrikson, Mokena