Readers Write: Addiction, tariffs, health care, St. Louis Park’s West End

Opinion editor’s note: Strib Voices publishes letters from readers online and in print each day. To contribute, click here.

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My heart goes out to the Carlson family after losing their daughter Lizzi to the agonizing disease that is addiction (“‘The monster inside of me,’” StarTribune.com, Nov. 16). As someone who struggled with addiction for many years, I resonate with the desperate longing in Lizzi’s texts to overcome her demons. Lizzi and I share similar struggles and are not far apart in age. After seven years sober, it still strikes me how recovery seems to hit people by chance. I’ll never be able to understand or explain why I found recovery and others, like Lizzi, do not.

One thing I can offer the Carlsons, as someone who put their family though the same torment and heartbreak for many years: Your continued support, love and shared hope for Lizzi, no matter how small at times, was felt by her in some capacity. Reading about your love for your daughter shows other struggling families that it’s possible to do the same.

Addiction is such an isolating disease. Thank you for sharing your story and letting others know they are not alone.

Kiley Munsey, Minneapolis

President Donald Trump has reduced some consumer-crushing tariffs on beef, coffee and up to 200 other grocery items. These tariffs have taken a toll on American consumers as well as the world markets. The voters sent a message during this year’s elections that his economic policies are driving up inflation and the cost of everything. They want a president who understands their pain, and that may be impossible for this particular administration. Their economic policies have not only devastated industries such as manufacturing but hurt our farmers. No matter how it is positioned, tariffs are taxes on all of us and Trump believes tariffs are an economic lever that he can use to manipulate countries and our economy. All it takes is one trip to the grocery store to know it is not working!

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Trump is promising checks of $2,000 per person as “tariff dividends.” According to the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget (CRFB), these checks could cost our government as much as $600 billion. So far tariffs added by Trump have raised $100 billion. CRFB projects that the tariffs could raise $300 billion per year, but that figure includes tariffs that have been found illegal unless the Supreme Court reverses lower court rulings. Thus the proposed “tariff dividends” exceed the projected tariff income. Trump’s claim that he can issue these checks while lowering the national debt with tariffs has no connection with reality.

The Congressional Budget Office projects a federal budget deficit for fiscal year 2026 of $1.7 trillion.

News sources need to focus on Congress’ work on the budget. The bill that reopened the government last week included funds for military construction, veterans affairs, legislative branch operations, agriculture, rural development and the Food and Drug Administration. The bill also allows current levels of funding for all other government departments until Jan. 30, 2026. If by then Congress does not approve continued funding, the government will shut down again.

Congress’ decisions have huge consequences. For example, the Big Beautiful Bill added $150 billion for defense spending and another $150 billion for border enforcement and deportations. A two-year extension of the enhanced Affordable Care Act subsidies, which blunt premium spikes, would cost $60 billion. Congress has shifted funds from health care to militarization.

Jim Haefemeyer, Minneapolis

It is not often I agree with our current president. There is one issue where I agree: the cost of medical care in the United States. The Affordable Care Act is a cruel hoax. There is nothing affordable about our current medical costs. I doubt if you can name anything that has increased in cost as much as medical costs during your lifetime. Throwing more money at an outrageously expensive problem has only made it worse. According to the United Nations’ comparative statistics, life expectancy in the U.S. is 78.4 years. That is 48th in the world. The cost of medical care in the U.S. is $14,885 a year per person. Not only is it the highest cost in the world, it is nearly 50% higher than the next-highest country.

“Build a better mousetrap and the world will beat a path to your door.” That was the motto of two centuries of invention and innovation in the U.S. The quality initiative in our country touted benchmarking as a way to improve by comparing against better mousetraps and best practices. Japan has a better medical system and it costs significantly less. Life expectancy in Japan is 85 years. Their cost to maintain that highest in the world life expectance is an average of $5,790 per person. That’s 85 years for $5,790 per person, versus 78.4 years for $14,885 per person.

Why don’t we stop treating medical cost as a need for more funding and start looking at a known, better mousetrap that gets better results at less than 40% of our cost? If we can compete with Japan in cars, why can’t we compete in health care?

Gene Brandl, Apple Valley

It’s said that even a broken clock is right twice a day. Well, President Donald Trump got it right this week when he noted that ACA subsidies have been “a windfall” for “money-sucking” health insurance companies — though of course providing no alternative. Last year alone, the federal government paid out nearly $100 billion in ACA subsidies, according to the Congressional Budget Office, which passed through enrollee plans into the coffers of the private insurance industry — companies notorious for routine claim denial while siphoning billions of health dollars into shareholder profits, advertising, marketing, lobbying and obscene executive compensation packages. Moreover, the resulting labyrinth of thousands of private plans/coverages requires providers and hospitals to operate a vast billing apparatus just to get paid. Money-sucking, indeed.

For those who aim to root out waste, fraud and abuse, it’s long past time to address the elephant in the room. Eliminate the private insurance juggernaut once and for all, and adopt an efficient, equitable and comprehensive single-payer plan.

Dave Dvorak, Minneapolis

The writer is a physician.

The Nov. 16 article about the new vibrancy of St. Louis Park’s West End was a really exciting and validating read (“With low vacancy, West End bucks trend”). It confirmed something that many Minnesotans already know intuitively: A desirable community is one where you can live close to the places you want to be.

The West End is thriving because it has allowed a policy that is forbidden by default in most of Minnesota: mixed-use zoning. Mixed-use zoning is the quality that makes historic main streets so delightful. Traditionally, cities interwove homes with the places that made up a person’s world: workplaces, shops, restaurants, hardware stores, etc. I’m so excited to see this policy being revived!

I hope that everyone who wants their own neighborhood to get the same influx of vitality as St. Louis Park will demand that their legislators allow mixed-use zoning statewide, so every place in Minnesota will have the opportunity to grow more joyfully human.