Let's all take a deep breath before we heap more praise on President Trump for his speech Tuesday evening. He read it verbatim from a Teleprompter. The likes of Steve Bannon and Kellyanne Conway surely had a heavy hand in writing the speech. Bannon, Conway, and Trump are master readers and manipulators of public opinion. It would be the height of naiveté to ignore the near certainty that large portions of that speech were based on strategy, not principle. It was delivered precisely, like a weapon. It wasn't heartfelt. It was a reading. As further evidence, consider the fact that Trump's signing of new immigration rules has been delayed so that he can bask in the afterglow of a "successful" speech. I thought we didn't have a day to spare lest the terroristic hordes pour across our borders! Turns out we've got a few days. Who knew they'd love him so much after that speech? No big deal.
Jeff Parker, Eden Prairie
• • •
President Trump's speech to a joint session of Congress was a continuation of his campaign with a new twist ("Does Trump tone signal a real shift," March 1). Pointing to and referring to the Democrats on more than one occasion, the president issued a challenge to them to work with him on a variety of issues. The Democrats, for the most part, signaled little agreement on much of what he said. Certainly they are still in denial over the losses sustained in the last election. But there is work to do and a nation to rebuild.
If the Democrats refuse to participate in much of the revitalization work that will be undertaken, they will suffer for it. If they choose instead to construct roadblocks to the president's agenda, they will diminish their standing further. At some point in the near future, Americans will begin to reject the negativity of the Democrat Party. Citizens are looking ahead with a renewed spirit to meet challenges for the next generation. Anything less than that is not acceptable.
JOSEPH POLUNC JR., Cologne
• • •
How will President Trump deliver on his promises? Most of us know the rational answer to this question — he won't. However, I am concerned about a future where Trump and the Republicans try to convince us that these promises have been fulfilled when they have only been fulfilled in theory. Trump surrogates are already projecting a rosy future that will presumably come to pass after Trump policies have been enacted.
Sen. Ted Cruz was asked on a morning talk show how the president and the Republicans could enact massive infrastructure spending and defense increases without massively increasing the deficit. He said that economic growth due to Trump policies would take care of the deficit — that perhaps the economy would even grow at a 5 percent rate. The Congressional Budget Office is projecting 2.1 percent annual growth, and, in my reading, most economists predict that even 3 percent growth is unrealistic. If Trump is allowed to get away with submitting a budget with unrealistic projections, the Republicans can vote for it and pretend they are fiscally responsible.
These same rosy predictions can assure us that the Affordable Care Act has been replaced with something better when the something better is just a theory. Or that gutting the Environmental Protection Agency will not increase pollution because, well, it just won't.
