Passing budget

As Congress races toward its end-of-January deadline to pass the FY2026 budget, one truth must be front and center: we cannot afford a repeat of last year’s chaos.

The illegal impoundments and partisan rescissions by the Trump Administration in 2025 were not mere technical disputes; they were an assault on Congress’s constitutional power of the purse. When any administration ignores the law and withholds funds Congress has already directed, it undermines the very structure that keeps our Republic standing.

Our democracy survives only when each branch respects its constitutional role. When that balance is violated, public trust crumbles, confusion reigns, and the foundations of our government weaken.

As lawmakers shape the next budget, they must build in firm safeguards that prevent future administrations from defying the will of Congress. The budget must not only pass; it must be enforceable.

I urge our elected officials to protect the Constitution by passing a budget that ensures the Administration carries out the law as Congress intended. Our democracy depends on it.

William Deignan

Medford

Reparations

I keep hearing about reparations.  My biggest question is why should I have to pay reparations since one of my ancestors died in Andersonville Prison while fighting to free the slaves. I think that if reparations are approved then we need reparations for every one of the Union dead, people who gave their lives to free the slaves.  And finally why should people who were never slaves get money from people who never owned slaves?

Jeffrey Padell

East Walpole

Russia

The proposed peace plan to end Russia’s devastating war in Ukraine is a capitulation to Russia, and it rewards an invading hostile country. Furthermore, the resultant plan gives Russia impetus to conduct future warfare to expand further west in Europe.

The plan calls for Russia to stop the war, but it would retain the land it occupied during the invasion, which is one fifth of Ukraine. Ukraine would have to reduce the size of its military. It would have to agree not to join NATO and not allow NATO troops on its territory.

Ukraine would receive a guarantee from the U.S. for security protection, but the U.S. guaranteed protecting Ukraine in 1994 if Ukraine agreed to disarm its nuclear weapons and send them to Russia. Ukraine complied with the agreement, and Russia then proceeded to invade Ukraine in 2014 and 2022.

The peace plan includes lifting the sanctions on Russia thereby allowing Russia to resume world trade.

This peace plan reminds me of the Munich Agreement signed by Neville Chamberlain of Great Britain and Adolph Hitler of Nazi Germany on Sept. 30, 1938, which included ceding part of Czechoslovakia to Hitler for his promise not to further expand in Europe. Subsequently from 1939 to 1944 Hitler invaded and occupied a large part of Europe.

Donald Moskowitz

Londonderry, NH