Mike Garrity

Republicans routinely condemn Congress and Washington, D.C., for “throwing money” at whatever problems arise in our society and then demand an end to what they derisively call the “nanny state.” Yet, that’s exactly what Sen. Jim Risch called for in his Oct. 8 column in the Idaho State Journal by voicing his support for his Wildfire Disaster Funding Act, which gives the Forest Service a new multi-billion dollar account to fight wildfires. The fatal flaw in Risch’s big spending plan is that the overwhelming conclusion among fire science professionals is that forest fires cannot be stopped during extreme weather conditions any more than we can stop hurricanes. Fires slow and stop when the weather changes, just like they did this year when the rain and snow ended the long, hot, dry summer in the Northern Rockies.