Letters to the editor - Feb. 27

Thank you for continued support

The Bread Basket is so blessed to be a part of a community that cares so deeply for their neighbors in need. Thank you! Because of your generosity, our shelves were filled to over-flowing (15,789 pounds of food for December; 8,270 in January). Healthy financial donations also contributed to our presently stable outlook. Thanks to one and all for their generous support:

• Businesses/ Banks/ Corporations    

• Churches/ Church groups

• Local/ County community organizations

• Students/ Teachers from elementary through high school and the local college

• The Tribes and SKC

• Postal workers, medical workers, MV Power workers, retired workers

• Grocery stores

• Radio, TV stations and newspapers

• Farmers, ranchers and townspeople

In our current economy, many families struggle to find the money to buy food. Even with both parents working, many families’ income can/does fall below the poverty level. In fact, child poverty in Montana is among the fastest growing in the nation, with 40 percent of Lake County’s children living at or below the national standard for poverty in 2013. With your continued help, the Bread Basket can feed hungry families for four days each month. We can make sure there is milk for the children. Please be sure to designate on your financial donation if you wish to support the milk fund. You have made the difference.

Much of the food that came in during the holidays will be given out in the coming months. Winter can be long and hard. Donations of food and money continue to be needed to provide healthy food and milk for the children for an average of over 200 families/month.

Thanks to each and every one of you for your continued support now and throughout the year. Your compassion and generosity continues to be inspiring. God bless all of you in 2014.

Gratefully,

Sherri McDonald

Chairwoman of

The Bread Basket board

We the people are government

Regarding separation of powers, the 10th Amendment plainly says that any power not given to the United States by the U.S. Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the states, is reserved to the states or to the people. In regards to how far the U.S. Government may go in laying taxes, the following from Wikipedia applies:

“United States v. Butler, 297 U.S. 1 (1936), was a case in which the Supreme Court of the United States ruled that the processing taxes instituted under the 1933 Agricultural Adjustment Act were unconstitutional. Justice Owen Roberts argued that the tax was “but a means to an unconstitutional end” that violated the 10th Amendment.”

This means that a tax used for an unconstitutional end is an unconstitutional tax. Exercising my freedom of speech and right to petition for redress, I can constitutionally argue that a tax laid on me for an unconstitutional purpose is unconstitutional.

We all can.

Nowhere does the U.S. Constitution give the U.S. Government the authority to legislate health care, therefore the taxes laid to fund the Affordable Care Act are unconstitutional. It’s reserved to the states. Massachusetts recognizes this, and not only that, so did a handful of U.S. Congressmen, all Democrats and headed by Jesse Jackson, Jr. Jackson introduced a bill in 2005, the now defunct HJ Res. 30, to amend the U.S. Constitution regarding quality health care. One doesn’t amend the constitution for something that’s constitutional.

Since we the people are the government, we need to tell all three of our U.S. legislators to repeal it. If you like the ACA, replace it with MontanaCare, something constitutional. If you don’t like the ACA and don’t speak up, it won’t go away.

Eric Knutson

Dayton