SAVE Act could disenfranchise thousands in SLO County, League of Women Voters warns | Opinion

Oppose the SAVE Act

A current bill in Congress aims to make voting harder for everyone. The Safeguard American Voter Eligibility (SAVE) Act has the potential to disenfranchise millions of American voters. SAVE would require a passport or a birth certificate to register to vote or update voter registration information.

It is currently illegal for non-citizens to register and vote and voter fraud is exceedingly rare. Even if you have voted in every election, you may be among the millions of eligible voters who do not have the documentation required by this law. Of San Luis Obispo County’s approximately 219,000 citizens of voting age, as many as 53,000 married women who changed their name upon marriage could be at risk of losing their vote. Married women who changed their surname may be required to secure updated documentation to match their married name. A birth certificate, marriage license, or REAL ID alone would not suffice as proof of citizenship.

Under the SAVE Act voters must show citizenship documentation every time they register. SAVE will deny eligible voters their rights. The League of Women Voters urges you to tell our Senators Alex Padilla and Adam Schiff to strenuously oppose this dangerous bill.

Ann Havlik, Elizabeth Manak

Co-presidents, League of Women Voters of SLO County

The ‘BBB’ won’t generate growth

Congressional Republicans are challenging the Congressional Budget Office’s estimate that Trump’s “Big, Beautiful Bill” will increase the deficit by $2.4 trillion by claiming that the CBO does not account for growth generated by the BBB’s tax cuts.

Trump’s 2017 tax cuts did not produce any growth, and the BBB won’t either. CBO, the Brookings Institution and others have looked at this and concluded that tax cuts do not grow the economy.

Brookings concluded: “Tax rate cuts may encourage individuals to work, save and invest, but if the tax cuts are not financed by immediate spending cuts they will likely also result in an increased federal budget deficit, which in the long-term will reduce national saving and raise interest rates. The net impact on growth is uncertain, but many estimates suggest it is either small or negative.”

The tax cuts in the BBB are not financed by cuts, except by cuts to things like education and research, which really do promote growth. What we can expect from this bill is bigger deficits, more income and wealth inequality and stock buybacks, not growth.

Chris Toews

San Luis Obispo

King Trump vs. LA

I have a little more respect for Gov. Gavin Newsom. I watched the LA ICE live protests for way too long and didn’t see any big confrontation. It was like someone invited and allowed the agitator groups to come burn cars, pelt Highway Patrol troops, spray paint graffiti everything, bring in high-end fireworks to throw at the Highway Patrol (why were they involved?) who were taking shelter under the underpasses. But there was no surging crowd of protesters, it looked like a lot of lookie-loos and the curious.

The protest started Friday, attracting more by Sunday. It was a bizarre thing to watch, law officers stood around and let like six vehicles be set on fire, didn’t attempt in any way to stop the fires or put them out, gross pollution. Then the Highway Patrol let the instigators/insiders damage three or four of their vehicles they left vulnerable when they could have shielded them.

No one was stopping the group that came in to make a scene.These are weird times indeed. I appreciate Newsom’s response after watching this latest ICE protest/National Guard abuse from authoritarian King Trump in LA, the California he hates.

Linde Owen

Los Osos

What siege?

“Los Angeles is under siege,” the president exclaimed.

Don’t be fooled. The demonstrations are a microcosm of Trump’s strategy to usurp more power. His divisive demagoguery is not about law and order. It’s about instilling fear in the minds of Americans, so he can wield more power.

Jim Huchthausen

Nipomo

What emergency?

Trump cries, “Emergency” — emergency being anything he does not like.

Emergency giving him the right to use the National Guard or Marines anywhere, for any reason. If he can create enough chaos to declare emergency, defy our governor and invade California, what’s next? Suspension of elections? Rep. Jimmy Panetta, let’s protect ourselves and impeach him now.

Maria Lorca

Paso Robles