Mailbag: A troubling lack of Steel support for infrastructure bill

Whether you think the $45.5 billion coming to California from the $1.2 trillion Infrastructure and Jobs Act is a lot of money or not enough (it is, I understand, the most for any state), it is $45.5 billion more than California Congressional Republicans voted for. In a shameless display of partisanship, my congresswoman, Rep. Michelle Steel (R-48), voted NAY merely to deny any Democrat-engineered bill from benefiting millions of Americans and over 700,000 constituents in her district. Is this what we elected her to do? When Harley Rouda was our congressman, he did a great job of bringing home the bacon for the 48th District. What has Rep. Steel done for us lately?

While I can see GOP members of Congress in rock-ribbed Republican districts in California flaunting their perverse partisanship, our district is hardly in that category. Clearly, Rep. Steel doesn’t care about the jobs creation, transportation and water-quality improvements, environmental projects to address climate change, and other important and worthwhile programs that the bill would fund. How does turning your nose up at a fair-sized chunk of that $45.5 billion address our many infrastructure needs and concerns here?

Steel’s constituents are already paying the price for putting a “do nothing” partisan puppet in Congress. It is high time she starts paying a political price for her lousy representation. Given Steel being part of the problem instead of part of the solution, it is time we vote NAY for her reelection bid next November.

Tim Geddes
Huntington Beach

750,000 COVID-19 deaths

To be sure, last week’s announcement that 750,000 Americans have been felled by COVID-19 is shocking. Given the current daily death rate, my guess is we will reach one million fatalities by Valentine’s Day 2022.

If you are wondering just how many moms, dads, brothers, sisters, aunts, uncles and grandparents this represents, imagine the entire population of San Clemente, Dana Point, Laguna Beach, Newport Beach, Huntington Beach, Costa Mesa and Irvine completely wiped out. That’s right. Not a single person living in any of these seven cities.

If you are among the tens of thousands of people living at or near the beach who still haven’t been vaccinated, please get a COVID-19 shot now. It’s not too late.

Denny Freidenrich
Laguna Beach

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