Letter: Republicans try to distract us while inflating national debt
The federal debt is $36.2 trillion. If that amount were divided among every American we'd each owe $106,000. The Congressional Budget Office reports that the tax and spending bill passed by House Republicans could add $2.4 trillion to our debt. The U.S. treasury is spending more than $1 trillion a year on debt repayment. The word 'insanity' comes to mind. Putting ordinary Americans on the hook to pay for billionaires' tax cuts is cruel and un-American.
It is now evident what President Donald Trump means when he says 'Make America great again.' It's a return to the time of the robber barons during the Gilded Age. The gold paint, gold fabrics and gold-plated fixtures in the Oval Office should erase any doubt.
With an administration surrounded by billionaires, will history repeat itself? We have a soaring national debt and an administration enamored with accumulating wealth. Is this what people voted for? Does another Great Depression await the U.S.?
This administration appears to be flooding the media with one distraction after another in order to hide our real problems.
Jeanette Winkler
Ruscombmanor Township
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'Trump deliberately made statements in favour of diplomacy, in favour of not having Israel attack, leading everyone to think that, if there is an attack, it would happen after the six rounds of talks on Sunday,' he said. 'Instead, it happened sooner.'While the Israeli strikes garnered some criticism in Congress, many Republicans and Democrats cheered them on. But a key part of Trump's base has been a segment of the right wing that questions the US's unconditional support for Israel. 'They really are representative of a solid constituency within the Republican Party, especially if you look at younger individuals,' said Jon Hoffman, research fellow in defence and foreign policy at the Cato Institute, a libertarian think tank. Hoffman pointed to a recent Pew Research Center survey that suggested 50 percent of Republicans under the age of 50 have an unfavourable view of Israel. 'Among the electorate itself, the American people are sick and tired of these endless wars,' he told Al Jazeera. Foreign policy hawks who favour military interventions dominated the Republican Party during the presidency of George W Bush, who launched the invasions of Iraq and Afghanistan in the aftermath of the attacks on September 11, those two conflicts proved to be disastrous. Thousands of US soldiers were killed, and many more were left with lasting physical and psychological scars. Critics also questioned whether the wars advanced US interests in the region — or set them back. The nation-building project in Iraq, for instance, saw the rise of a government friendly to Iran and the emergence of groups deemed to be a threat to global security, including ISIL (ISIS). In Afghanistan, meanwhile, the Taliban returned to power in 2021, almost exactly two decades after the group was ousted by US forces. The US-backed Afghan government quickly crumbled as American troops withdrew from the country. During his campaign for re-election in 2024, Trump tapped into the anger that the two conflicts generated. On multiple occasions, he sketched an alternative timeline where, if he had been president, the collapse of the Afghan government would have never occurred. 'We wouldn't have had that horrible situation in Afghanistan, the most embarrassing moment in the history of our country,' Trump said at one October 2024 rally in Detroit. The US president also slammed his Democratic opponent Kamala Harris for her alliance with Dick Cheney, who served as Bush's vice president, and his daughter Liz Cheney, criticising them as 'war hawks'. 'Kamala is campaigning with Muslim-hating warmonger, Liz Cheney, who wants to invade practically every Muslim country on the planet,' Trump told another crowd in Novi, Michigan. He added that Dick Cheney 'was responsible for invading the Middle East' and 'killing millions'. But critics say Trump's posture towards the Israeli strikes in Iran risks embroiling him in his own Middle East conflict. Hoffman, for instance, pointed to the closeness of the US-Israel relationship and the persistence of officials within the Republican Party who have been pushing for conflict with Iran for decades, like Senator Lindsey Graham. 'There is a tremendous risk of the United States being dragged into this war,' Hoffman said.
