To the editor:
Don’t be fooled: Trump and his billionaire friends want to steal our money.
How do I know? First, Trump closed the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. It was created after Wall Street caused the Great Recession. It’s returned billions to regular people who were ripped off by banks and credit card companies. Don’t get me wrong: Washington should do more to fight financial predators. But Trump is making it even easier for them to pick our pockets.
Second, he’s fired thousands of IRS employees. Some might say, “Isn’t that a good thing?” But it turns out that with more IRS workers, the more they go after rich people. The rich are by far the biggest tax-evaders, but they have armies of accountants and lawyers hiding their crimes. Every $1 spent at the IRS gets us $5 to $9 back. Again, don’t get me wrong: Washington should tax the rich much more, like we did back in the ‘50s. But Trump is making it even easier for billionaires to avoid paying their fair share, and now Republicans in Congress are hard at work trying to lower billionaires’ taxes.
Trump says his donor Elon Musk is cutting government waste. He isn’t. Musk is handing himself government contracts while firing the regulators investigating his companies. This administration is gutting healthcare for the elderly, firing people who keep airplanes flying and keep nuclear bombs secure. These workers’ jobs made America a better place to live; Trump is putting them on unemployment. Now he and Musk are using money from these layoffs to enrich themselves.
Trump wants us to believe he has the magic power to make our lives better. Why hasn’t he used it? Why is the price of eggs higher than ever when he said he’d fix it? Because he lied. He is a con man, and he is laughing at us.
There is a small group who don’t care: “As long as minorities get hurt, Trump can rule us like a king.”
But to everyone else: We need new, accountable leaders who will help poor and working-class people, not billionaires.
Rob Kipp
Presque Isle
