Doris W. Draper is a resident of Houston.
When did Congress cede its job to the executive? Our Constitution’s Article 1, Section 7 says only Congress has the ability to levy taxes. Tariffs are taxes on the American people. Donald Trump has no idea what he is doing. You only have to look at the results of the Smoot-Hawley tariffs, which led us to the Great Depression of the ’30s, to see where we are headed.
Why are you letting Trump try to extort minerals from Ukraine? The Budapest Memorandum — signed in 1994 by Ukraine, the U.S., the U.K. and Russia — ruled out economic coercion or any attempt to secure advantages of any kind as part of security assurances in the interests of Ukraine’s sovereignty.
This president has broken the law so many times. The 1974 Impoundment Control Act expressly prevents presidents from not disbursing money that Congress has included in spending bills. He has violated the Supreme Court ruling in Humphrey’s Executor, which says he cannot fire members of independent boards or commissions unless for cause. He has denied the freedom of speech guaranteed in our Constitution because someone doesn’t agree with him. He has deported people who are legally in this country without the right to due process. He has broken the Espionage Act, the Presidential Records Act and the Records Management by Federal Agencies Act. What is he hiding? He has put Elon Musk in a position of power without his being elected or confirmed by the Senate. Get him out of there!
As our country goes farther down the rabbit hole of debt, Trump seems to believe he can force the nation into bankruptcy, as he has done with his companies at least five times. He has no understanding of economics, medicine or our Constitution. Yes, we must rein in our debt, but it needs to be well thought out, not slipshod. We must let the current tax cuts expire. His plans for a budget will add trillions to our debt. You cannot ignore the Byrd rule or the Gramm-Rudman-Hollings Act. As faith in the United States is eroded by this man, no one is going to be willing to help finance our debt. What happens when Europe, China, Canada and Japan sell off their treasury notes?
If you are truly interested in reining in waste, then bring an end to the president’s golf trips, which have already cost over $30 million of taxpayer money.
He is supposed to live in the White House; make him do so. Why do we need to spend another $1.8 million on enhancements at Mar-a-Lago? We have already spent over a million dollars there.
He has spent over $300 million on sending troops to our southern border and placing warships in the area, all unnecessary if the immigration bill produced by Sen. Jim Lankford, R-Okla., had been enacted. We need immigrants in this country. They contribute over $7 trillion to our economy, helping to fund Social Security and Medicare. His move to list immigrants’ Social Security numbers in the “dead file” is ridiculous. Niney-nine percent of these people came here to work and help build this country.
And, if you let him go ahead with the parade he wants June 14, then you are abetting his theft of another $92 million from the American people. (This was the estimated amount in his first term, and surely, it has gone up.)
All these millions spent, while money for medical research, for combating bird flu and for the Federal Emergency Management Agency is sidelined.
And let’s not forget his ideas to take Greenland; to retake the Panama Canal (he is even deploying troops there); to take over Gaza and force its people out (he has aligned with Israel to cut off food and water, clearly a war crime); to take Canada as the 51st state; and to bomb Mexico and Iran. If this was a Democratic president, you would be screaming to invoke the 25th Amendment.
As one whose ancestors built this country from coast to coast and from border to border, I wonder when he will try to deport me because I don’t agree with him. When will he come for you?
Our once-prestigious Oval Office now looks like the entrance to his grandfather’s brothel. It is a disgrace. And now, he wants to pave over the Rose Garden.
As Winston Churchill told Neville Chamberlain in 1938: “You were given the choice between war and dishonor. You chose dishonor, and you will have war.”
Reader reactions, pro or con, are welcomed at civiltalk@iniusa.org.
