In his June 11 column, Tom McClintock displays his expertise on complex economic forecasting. Just multiply the CPI (inflation) by your savings and discover how much poorer your money has made you! Let those who lost jobs, childcare, housing, etc. go broke — we’d all be better off! I’ll ditch medicare and social security! I’m sure I’m driving up costs for everyone by spending that money. Businesses small and large will be fine if everyone is too broke to eat out or buy anything. We can eat roots and grubs!

But wait! Does anyone fact-check this stuff? After all, isn’t this the same congressman who joined Trump’s “Big Lie” that he won the election last year? Mr. McClintock endorsed the lawsuit to overturn the election in Georgia, Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin. The more than 60 lawsuits to overturn the election were struck down by courts including judges Trump appointed. Is that honest, Mr McClintock?

A quick search finds many viewpoints on inflation. For example: Gas prices probably went up because OPEC cut oil production to prop up prices during the pandemic and Texas refineries shut down after damage from winter storms, from Yahoo finance Feb. 25, 2021.

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So why is the Sierra Sun uncritically printing this misinformation? I see no opposing viewpoints except in the comments online. The opinion page seems to have a reserved space for the Republican disinformation machine. (See Ted Gaines partisan columns.) Yes, we need some balance, but Mr. McClintock’s column reflects a philosophy that has no solutions to help our country climb out of the doldrums due to the pandemic or prepare for the future!

Richard Needham

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Tahoe Vista