To the editor:
President Trump was right. We are all sick and tired of so much winning. Enough is enough!
We have just won what he has deemed as “Liberation Day,” although it is not clear what we are being liberated from. The stock market is crashing, although it is self-induced. The chaos of the day is “Universal Tariffs” based on trade deficits according to an AI-generated formula — a formula which economists, accountants and trade experts universally say makes no sense.
There are a thousand reasons for trade deficits and it is utterly insane to think that any two countries would ever import and export the exact amount of goods. And to think that the reason there is a trade surplus or a deficit in any given case is because someone is cheating is equally insane.
Let us not forget that it was us that encouraged corporate America to manufacture our goods overseas because it was cheaper and they could profit more doing so. They did and they did. And now we, the consumers, are going to be effectively taxed for it. Yes, the government will collect the tariffs from the importers and yes, you and I will pay for it whenever we go to the store, gas station, grocery store, car dealership or anywhere else. Stock market crashing, retirement plans cratering, prices going up — tired of winning yet?
In addition, we have been the beacon of the world in terms of democracy and free enterprise. We have in less than 30 days alienated every ally that has ever stood beside us or had our back. Will our next victory be to pull (or get kicked out) of NATO?
We’ve won more. Every one of us is against waste, fraud and abuse in the federal government. Congress has established over the years many agencies and funded them. Rather than looking for and finding an ounce of waste, fraud or abuse, we have given someone who has not been vetted and who has hundreds of billions of dollars in contracts with government agencies, unfettered access to these agencies with the apparent authority to fire tens of thousands of employees and defund entire budgets. It is of no consequence that he has no accounting or auditing skills, no real understanding of why Congress established any given agency or what it actually does. Nor has he shown any actual record of what he is doing.
He is proudly and gleefully doing it with a chainsaw instead of a scalpel. This victory has yielded tons of sensitive data being compromised, and Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid being put in jeopardy to just start the list.
We are sick and tired of winning. Enough is enough. Every state and federal congressman and most other elected officials have taken an oath to protect and defend the Constitutions of the United States and the State of Missouri. They each have also taken an oath to faithfully serve us. Write, call, text, email or tell them in person to do their jobs and “Stop all this winning.”
Respectfully,
Max Freeman,
Cape Girardeau
