Dear Editor,
Jerry Baird needs to do some more thorough research (re: How did we choose him to be leader of the free world? News Letter Journal, May 25, ,2017, page 2).
The people who elected Trump are the whole middle of the US. Only the progressives on the east and west coasts voted for him.
Do you really think we would be better off with Hillary in there? She could continue the same programs that Obama was doing, including the spying just released on the American people. Do you think she would try to unite the Arab people against Iran? She would continue Obama’s program. Remember, Hillary promoted the sale of much of our uranium mining projects to Russia, and received a large donation to her foundation in exchange
You are very critical of Trump’s appointees. It is usual that intelligent and capable people tend to become rich because they prosper in their endeavors. Very few of the career bureaucrats become wealthy other than from their government pensions. Surely you must agree that there is a lot of waste in the government, and how else to fix that than to reduce spending.
Have you ever heard of the fraud with food stamps? Some people sell the stamps and then use the money to buy liquor and drugs. The defense department is the biggest waste of all until we happen to need it, and we have needed it several times in the past. All of the armed forces and supplies we have bought were just a waste until the time comes that we need them, or of course we could just surrender and let Russia and China divide up the country. The defense industry has also provided millions of jobs for people and the scientists have made a few worthwhile discoveries, so it was probably not totally wasted.
Your comment on taxes is also off base. The top 10 percent of the taxpayers pay 88 percent of the income tax, and the group from 40 percent to 60 percent pay about 4 percent. The lower income group pays none, and generally gets money back. It is a mystery where the money comes from if the rich are not paying taxes. How would business get started if there were no rich people to build factories and pay wages? Who would make donations of millions of dollars to the various charities? I know I have paid taxes in excess of 40 percent. How much do you pay?
Do you really think Putin is happy with Trump in the presidency? He would have a much better chance for his program with Hillary in. Hillary had absolutely no qualifications to be president. She married Bill Clinton, who was a failure. She was a poor lawyer at the Rose law firm. She lost the first election to another unqualified person, and she did nothing as Secretary of State. Trump had his bad times also, but who else in the country would take on the established bureaucracy? Every other candidate was part of the establishment and would just go along with it.
We are spending about $2 trillion on interest and social programs, and that is half of what it takes to run the country. Obama put us so far in debt with his programs we may not ever recover.
The people who voted for Hillary have been in such a state of shock because she lost that they are frantic. Does anyone remember the Republican reactions to Clinton or Obama victories? Were there any riots in the streets? The world may be changing after several years of trying progressive programs which do not work. California recently studied a single payer medical system and found that just the medical program would cost nearly twice the present budget.
—Don Thorson