Only Republicans can fix it

The recent national security breach (Minnesota’s own Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth communicating highly secretive and detailed attack plans on an open-source platform) is being widely dismissed by Republicans of all stripes.

“Wasn’t a systemic thing and didn’t require a special investigation”; “A mistake was made. It happens”; “it’d be a terrible mistake for there to be adverse consequences on any of the people that were involved in that call”; and “This is what the leftist media is reduced to … now we’re griping about who’s on a text message and who’s not. I mean, come on.”

Democrats can’t stop the chaos and national security danger that is the current administration, only Republicans can.  It’s too late for Congressmen Finstad, Emmer, Fishbach, Stauber, and VanOrden, who continue to abdicate their leadership responsibilities and genuflect at the altar of Trump.

It’s time for grassroots Republicans to mount primary challenges to their elected officials who won’t stand up, do what’s right, speak truth to power and lead with the core values of our forefathers and their historical Republican Party.

To my Republican friends, and you are many, you can do it.

Tom Shea, Owatonna

Time to return

I do believe five years ago when Covid was running rampant in the country Gov, Walz made the decision to allow workers to stay safe and continue to receive a paycheck by working from home. This also allowed parents to be with their children (no child care payments).

Now it’s time to return to a job and be thankful you still have one. Think on the much brighter side … Elon Musk could be requesting you to stay home. Permanently.

Marjorie Orris, Shoreview

It’s not a crisis

I strongly object to the St. Paul mayor’s take on the City Council supporting the Fort Road Federation/District 9 Community Council’s appeal that took issue with city zoning administrator and planning commission findings. With the city’s legal team at her side, Councilwoman Noecker’s carefully reasoned and elegant rationale, that the council unanimously approved, was based upon a number of factors, not just the interpretation of a public works yard.

The mayor has ignored decades of (local) community input on the care for our environment and possibilities for both commercial and transit viability, specifically for our beautiful river corridor. He also ignored the testimony of his constituents that objected not only to what would have been its impending destruction, but also the potential loss of residential property tax income. A number of alternative sites could have been considered, and what is worse our community was given a fait accompli, specifically excluded from decision-making on locating this garbage-truck dispatch center. The mayor has fabricated a “crisis” where none exists: an alternative dispatch center already is in operation and will be for expanded service. I would like to encourage the mayor and his staff to read his citizens’ testimonies, even join us in a conversation on the issues we presented.

Jos F Landsberger, St. Paul

Checks?

Where are the checks and balances so President Trump doesn’t become King Donald?

Thomas Good, Woodbury

What leaders who respect democracy do

Leaders who respect democracy follow laws. For the sake of a functioning nation, they respect established due process. If an agency or office was established by the legislature, they recognize its currency and work through the legislature to change or dismantle it.

Leaders who respect democracy respect the courts. The leaders certainly can raise legal challenges, but they abide by court decisions and neither flout rulings nor attack judges who rule against them. The statement by Chief Justice Roberts means that leaders who respect democracy appeal rulings they find disagreeable to higher courts.

Leaders who respect democracy do not fire, incarcerate or deport (“disappear”) individuals without due process. Innocent until proven guilty  is a cornerstone of democracy.

Leaders who respect democracy do not attack with vitriol and seek to suppress critics of their policies, whether individuals, private companies, news agencies, government offices (such as of Inspectors General), other government branches, or countries.

Leaders who do not respect democracy are fascists, authoritarians, dictators, virtual mega crime bosses — choose your term. If such labels don’t move you, these leaders are cruel.

My question is, do we as a people want to kowtow to cruelty?

Dan Gartrell, St. Paul

Replace the word ‘deporting’

Let’s be absolutely 100% clear here: President Donald Trump and Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem aren’t simply deporting the “bad hombres” who entered the United States without authorization as they would like us to believe. They are actually creating a class of undocumented immigrants by removing the legal status of hundreds of thousands of people who were lawfully admitted into the United States and then calling for their removal.

Think about the difference here, folks, because it truly matters.

Those who entered the United States lawfully under parole programs for Cubans, Haitians, Nicaraguans and Venezuelans did so with U.S. sponsors, proper vetting and prior permission from the U.S. government to fly to and be lawfully admitted into the United States. In other words, they followed all proper channels and procedures, violated no laws to get here and committed no crimes since their arrival.

Nevertheless, the administration ruthlessly and at the end of the day on a Friday — a cowardly tactic many of us immigration lawyers got used to during Trump’s first administration — announced it will revoke that legal status and commence removal proceedings against those who do not “self deport.”

Make no mistake. When you hear that “Trump is deporting hundreds of thousands of illegal aliens,” replace the word “deporting” with the word “creating.” That more accurately describes the situation.

John Medeiros, Richfield. The writer is an immigration attorney.

Reducing the deficit requires thought and care

When Elon Musk is not busy procreating (14 children, one of whom is transgender), or blowing up rockets, he dons dark glasses and brandishes a chainsaw to represent all the cuts he’s making to the federal payroll. The chainsaw is an apt metaphor: he cuts without regard for people’s needs, or the effects they will have. Even President Trump has said we need to use a scalpel, not a hatchet.

Any large organization is likely to have places ripe for budget cuts; the US government is no exception. But the Trump/Musk approach so far has been this: cuts save money, so they are good. Targets so far include the Departments of Defense and Education, FEMA, the IRS, the VA, US Aid to Developing Countries, and anything that sounds like DEI. More will follow.

Some of these are easy and popular targets, like the IRS. Who loves tax collectors? The reality is that fewer IRS agents will mean that it will be more difficult investigate unreported income, leaving higher tax bills for honest taxpayers.  FEMA sometimes gets blamed for late or inadequate responses to disasters. So cutting it will help? Foreign aid, always a target of “America First” thinkers, is a very small part of the US budget, and is meant to help others and engender goodwill for the US in other parts of the world.

Musk and Trump would do well to read a chapter on Medicare and Medicaid fraud in “Revenge of the Tipping Point,” a 2024 book by Malcom Gladwell. Gladwell lists the average cost of Medicaid payments per person in several Florida cities. They range from a low of $190 (Ormond Beach), to second highest $321 (Panama City). That’s a significant difference. But then there’s Miami: $1,234.  Clearly fraud is taking place. Gladwell found buildings in Miami filled with dozens of tiny offices purporting to be medical providers. In reality they have no patients, they just process bogus Medicaid claims and steal from the government.

The last two balanced budgets for the US federal government were under Bill Clinton and Lyndon Johnson, both Democrats. With Musk nibbling at the edges of government spending and Trump promising to keep his tax cuts for the wealthy when he’s not selling Teslas from the White House lawn, the US debt will just keep rising. Interest payments on the debt are currently $875 billion a year.

Reducing the federal deficit will benefit the US, but only if this is achieved with thought and care. Neither quality is present in the current approach.

Lee Hartzheim, St. Paul

These are not evil people

I volunteer at a local adult ESL class. I recently helped edit letters students wrote describing why it is important to them to learn English. Again and again, the same themes emerged: learning English will help them succeed in their careers and relate to customers, and learning English provides them with new opportunities for their families.

I have been horrified by the deportations of immigrants and the inhumane conditions they are put through. America represents a safe haven for many immigrants looking to escape oppressive governments. These are not evil people. It is unacceptable to treat anyone like a criminal without evidence or a fair trial. Yes, even gang members deserve a fair trial.

Standing up for the people in my community, no matter their background or skin color, is just one of the reasons why I will be at the Hands OFF! protest at the Capitol on April 5.

Kehly Todd, Lakeville

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