During the 2016 campaign, Mr. Trump repeatedly promised his base that Mexico would pay for the roughly 2,000-mile wall, which had an initial price tag of $20 billion plus.
They rejoiced at the prospect of two birds with one shot; a totally free wall, and a halt to all Hispanic migration. He won on that promise.
Mr. Trump systematically walks back on this major commitment ever since, and now demands the American taxpayers to put up the cash on another false promise that Mexico will pay it all back on an indefinite future date.
Mr. Trump threatens a government shutdown if Congress does not immediately appropriate $5 billion as a down payment for his $20-billion-plus wall. I had no faith and confidence in his original promises, and I still do not. I firmly believe that it is the Trump Administration’s responsibility to collect the full funding from Mexico and fulfill his promise.
If the threat to shut down the government is part of the art of the deal making, I am unimpressed. I call your bluff, sir. You go ahead, and shut the government down.
SIVADASAN MADHAVAN
Sylvania
Make Mexico pay
Donald Trump is requesting $5 billion more from our wallets to pay for a wall at the southern border, yet the House and Senate are controlled by Republican budget hawks.
To any of our self-appointed budget hawks, Rep. Bob Latta included, your predicament is easy. Send the request back to the President’s desk a note:
“You said Mexico pays, not the U.S. taxpayers. We’re tapped out.”
Let Mr. Trump start paying some bigly taxes on his bigly incomes then we can discuss the bigly change of promise for his bigly border wall. Maybe this time he will actually pay the contractors.
TOM ZOLTANSKI
Perrysburg
Thomas incorrect
Cal Thomas’ Dec. 11 column was full of misinformation concerning the National Climate Assessment Report.
First, Mr. Thomas points readers to Climate Depot, “my favorite website with links to knowledgeable and skeptical scientists.” This is a website founded by Marc Morano, who has a bachelors degree in political science, and highlights “climate expert Dr. Roger Pielke, Jr.” who also has a political science background. I have a political science background, but this does not make me a scientist in the typical meaning of the word.
The column goes on, “John P. Dunne is head of the Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Laboratory at Princeton University.” Mr. Thomas stated that Dunne “wrote Climate Depot: ‘Two years into the Trump administration it is sad to see this 400-page pile of crap.’” I reached out to John P. Dunne at Princeton and he replied, “The article by Cal Thomas incorrectly attributes a quote in Climate Depot apparently made by a Dr. John Dale Dunn, MD to myself. I have been working with NOAA communication (cc’d) to address this mistake.”
I understand that people have their right to opinions, but when opinion becomes full of falsehoods and misinformation that will harm Ohioans for generations to come, I wonder why a paper like The Blade is publishing it? Should you not be a champion for accuracy and truth? Is it any wonder that so many still doubt that global warming is happening?
ERIKA LEIGH FRENCH
Lakeside
First Published December 19, 2018, 12:00 p.m.
