Letters to the editor July 5

Fireworks! Jobs! Stronger economy! We celebrate a great Trade Treaty and the birth of the USA. President Donald Trump promised improvement on the old NAFTA, and he delivered!

Implementation of USMCA, the new Trade Treaty with Canada and Mexico, begins July 1, shortly before the 244th anniversary of our Declaration of Independence on July 4, 1776.

I am proud of both achievements. I grew a dark brown beard for our nation’s bicentennial birthday. If I grew a beard today it would be fully white.

As a young working man, I complained about the old NAFTA. I had the honor to contribute to USMCA as a Montana senator and president of PNWER, an association of legislators from Canada and USA. USMCA is much improved and modernized. Agriculture benefits in many ways. For Montana farmers shipping wheat north, USMCA equalizes pricing with Canadian grain and eliminates country origination of labeling.

I just finished a White House phone conference where C.J. Mahoney, U.S. Trade Relations director, provided exciting details taking effect July 1. He predicts 80,000 new jobs.

It is the largest trade deal we have, with a value of $1.5 trillion. USMCA lays a stronger foundation for North American trade long into the future. The new set of rules covers technology, digital and intellectual property, and it imposes strong labor rules for fair competition with Mexican manufacturers.

Exciting things for the younger generation and the older union craftsmen I once worked beside. It means greater stability of economies from auto manufacturing to tourism and recreation, especially in border communities across Montana.

Thank you to Sen. Steve Daines and Congressman Greg Gianforte for helping this landmark legislation through swampy Washington, D.C.

—Sen. Mike Cuffe, R-Eureka

We looked forward to visiting Northwest Montana. We found two rental houses for a month for two families from Colorado and California. We booked guides, rented boats and more. We hadn’t tested positive for COVID-19. But, we were traveling from areas that got hit early, then gotten under control. Our hometown achieved one of the lowest COVID-19 death rates in the nation by practicing social distancing.

On June 27 we visited Kalispell. In that 2-hour shopping trip we gave over $1,500 to your economy. We wore masks, not as a political statement but because we work in health care and the science is clear – masks save lives. We were verbally abused three different times. On Main Street, locals yelled profanities from their cars twice at our group including two children. 30 minutes later at Smith’s, a woman saw my wife and friend with masks on and she blocked us with her car, yelling profanities, telling us to go home.

I’ve traveled six continents and 34 countries and never experienced such a low level of human decency as in Kalispell. Or, been as embarrassed to be an American. Let’s be clear. We’re wearing masks to protect you. With no specific laws, you have a right to not wear a mask. We also have a right to not be assaulted. Other countries no longer allow Americans so we all have fewer places to travel. With 1/3 of your economy from tourism, you should welcome this revenue.

We left knowing that we did our best to not spread COVID-19 to you. We also gave you tens of thousands of dollars in revenue. While we appreciate the beauty of Northwest Montana, we won’t be back or recommend to anyone. There are so many other beautiful places with welcoming people, and without all the hate.

—Bob Williams, North Carolina

I was a Never Trumper. I used to think he was a narcissistic simpleton and an international disgrace. That all changed last week. I am onboard the Trump bandwagon now – bigly. Mr. Trump, in a moment of really big, beautiful, elegant profundity, stated, “If we stop testing right now, we’d have very few cases (of COVID-19), actually.” I don’t know why I previously questioned his intellect; I know he created, built, ran and taught a whole university, but now I know how smart he really is.

It’s Einstein-level stuff. It’s a huge, powerful game-changer. Some are saying it’s the most powerful science-thing any president has ever said. Trump’s approach to eradicating, or at least minimizing (“very few cases”), a virus that has killed more than 120,000 people in the U.S. in four months, can now be applied to other health issues with similar outcomes sure to follow.

If we get rid of X-ray machines in clinics and hospitals, voila! – no more broken bones! Ditto for dentists’ offices, and cavities will be a thing of the past. MRIs and CT scans? Rid the medical community of those monsters (probably made in China, anyway) and – yup – no more cancer. Brilliant! How did the smarties in the Obama administration miss this? Other benefits of not doing bloodwork would be the eradication of diabetes ... and everything else blood testing is used to detect! Phlebotomists will soon be as rare as rotary phones.

Trump’s genius astounds. He should be getting measured for the Nobel prize right now. He’ll likely bolt to the private sector in January to monetize his immeasurable brainpower. Regardless, he’ll be remembered as the one-term president who fundamentally changed health care and saved, literally, billions of American lives (watch - jealous detractors will say it was only hundreds of millions).

—Brian Wood, Whitefish