Dear-Senator

The Budget Reconciliation bill that's been kicked around since January would extend deep tax cuts to billionaires offset by deep cuts in health care, nutrition and education. People act as if it's a simple trade-off that balances out. It doesn't.

The difference will be made up by $3 trillion in borrowing over the next 10 years. Precisely put, the question is how much should the federal government borrow to put more money in the hands of its richest citizens?

No one except partisans believe it will stimulate growth. Forty years of experience proves supply side economics wrong. Income equality since 1980 has grown to levels comparable to the Gilded Age, and this bill would continue that trend.

In 2003, the Administration told us the invasion of Iraq would take six weeks and cost precisely $9.2 billion, and we would be reimbursed by the grateful Iraqis. I didn't believe it.

Today we're told the military actions in Iran were one-and-done. The United States has no plans to expand our involvement. Exactly. It has no plans.

The President trusts in “strategic ambiguity.” He said would give Iran two weeks to think about it, then he bombed them. The Vice President claimed we're not at war with Iran, but then the President speculated about regime change. The White House says he was just spit-balling.

The President is confident in his magical abilities. It works best in the past tense – Russia would not have invaded Ukraine, Hamas would not have attacked Israel, inflation would've never happened, etc. Easy to claim, but hard to prove.

The President has repeatedly promised a new health care plan that would be better and cheaper – and is coming out in two weeks. As for the economy, the good parts are Trump's doing and the bad parts are Biden's fault.

Today the President warned global companies they had better not raise the price of oil. Like Canute and the sea, President Trump can wave away market forces with a stroke of his Sharpie. That's quite a trick.

I continue to worry about the 238 El Salvadorans and Venezuelans shipped to the Terrorist Confinement Center in El Salvador. Many of them may be serious criminals, but we are supposed to take the Administration's word.

The Administration's messaging follows circular logic: These individuals deserve the treatment they are getting because look how badly they are being treated. They must be terrible. The Administration pretends its deportation policies are sensitive foreign policy matters – just as it pretends we are being invaded by Venezuela, etc.

Justice department lawyers have been repeatedly scolded by federal court judges for their cavalier approaches. If one slips up and tells the truth, they are a “deep-state, Democrat saboteur” as Stephen Miller has said.

The treatment of Senator Alex Padilla – removed, thrown to the floor and handcuffed – for interrupting the Secretary of Homeland Security is way out of bounds. The incident – filmed from many angles – is nothing like the White House account.

How long will we be told not to believe things we see? Senator Padilla did not lunge at the Secretary, he quickly identified himself and he showed no sign of resisting. In fact, he had to advise one of the agents on what was necessary for him to comply.

President Trump pledged to go after the “enemy from within,” and he has. He's taken unprecedented steps to attack American citizens in the media, government, politics and the law who disagree with his policies.

Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem made it plain they're taking it to the next level. “We are staying here to liberate the city from the socialists,” she said, meaning the elected governor of California and mayor of Los Angeles.

Nothing happening on the ground justifies the federal government sending almost 5,000 armed soldiers to “pacify” Los Angeles. The leaders – not so-called rioters – are the target.

From Canada, the President said today he plans to crack down on all the Democratic cities. He asserts the right to use military personnel nationwide at his whim.

The First Amendment protects the President of the United States' right to say inaccurate and inflammatory things – as he does on a daily basis.

“Biden allowed 21 million people to come into our country," Trump said. "The vast numbers of those people and murderers, killers, people from gangs, people from jails, they emptied their jails out into the U.S. Most of those people are in the cities, all blue cities, all Democrat-run cities, and they think they're going to use them to vote. It's not going to happen.”

It cannot be true that all of the people entering our country are – simultaneously murderers, insane, taking American workers jobs and voting in elections. In fact, no piece of that is true. Not the numbers, not the profiles of people coming in, not the illegal voters.

President Trump obviously considers himself President of Everything, and he has taken aggressive steps to dictate what is correct in art and culture. Despite his daily, blatant assault on the First Amendment, people like yourself continue to bite their tongues.

I remember all the furor over the “government-industrial censorship complex.” For years, Republicans alleged Americans were prevented from disseminating the “truth” because of government intimidation. And yet, a flurry of FBI emails did not stop every crazy idea in the world from being shipped to millions hundreds of times a day.

Since 1981, the tax system has been used to drive a greater and greater share of the nation's wealth to the nation's wealthiest. The gap between workers and owners has grown steadily.

You know the numbers. The House Budget would cut health care, nutrition and education. But neither the House nor Senate will ever cut enough to pay for the trillions in tax expenditures, tax cuts and new spending.

The Republican plan to borrow more money to pay for more tax cuts defies economic theory, logic and experience.

By what law does the President of the United States have the power to dictate the curriculum and admission policies at Harvard? The President would require affirmative action for conservative professors until the school achieves the balance the White House considers correct.

This open assault to the First Amendment is inarguable and appalling. The President acts as if he can turn a dial and all American universities, law firms, elementary and secondary schools, private companies, etc. can be required to support his priorities.

The President's paternalist and condescending treatment of South African President Cyril Ramaphosa is an outrage. Together with Vice President Vance and Secretary of State Rubio, he continues to damage America's reputation.

What was once a conspiracy meme – the South African government has targeted white farmers for death and/or expropriation – is now official U.S. policy. The idea is so far wrong that Agriculture Minister J.H. Steenhuisen, an Afrikaner from the conservative Democratic Alliance party, tried his best to repudiate the President's charges.

The video evidence proved only how sloppy and careless the White House has become – and how little respect it has for credibility, reliability or honesty.

I was born, went to school, learned to drive, worked, traveled, raised a family and bought a house all in the USA. I signed an oath that I would never advocate the violent overthrow of the United States. I'm a registered Democrat who pays my taxes, collects Social Security and votes in every election.

Why should I be so defensive? Because every time they put a microphone in front of the President of the United States, he launches into a tirade about how people like me are crazy and hate America and should be jailed, shunned, committed or deported. Of course, he can't hurt my feelings, but that makes it no less offensive and jejune.

What is so beautiful about the House proposed budget? Republicans have worked steadily to shift resources from low- and middle-income families to the richest among us since the 1980s. The Administration's priorities and the House bill would continue this trend.

The rationale behind these proposals defy logic. It would continue to borrow money to fund tax cuts while undermining human development. Our people are our greatest national resource, and so reducing health, education, environmental protection, worker safety, and other programs dedicated to people undermines our nation's defense and welfare.

House leaders are again pretending to making courageous cuts necessary to redirect our fiscal direction. Hogwash. The Administration is trying to eliminate support for programs it dislikes – regardless of financial impact – while pretending future deficits and debt will miraculously vanish.

Remember Reconstruction? Many complain it was heavy handed and corrupt, but the principal criticism was its actual intent – to enforce the 15th amendment. For a time federal troops guaranteed former slaves' free exercise of voting rights. When they left, former Confederate leaders quickly restored what they called “white supremacy” in political and economic affairs.

The Trump Administration is bent on a similar mission. It is using the full extent of its powers to monitor law firms, universities and all federal grantees of anti-white, anti-male discrimination. Perhaps the next step will be a program of reparations for white people.

Last week, Press Secretary Karoline Levitt said, “I think it’s frankly ridiculous that anyone in this room would even suggest that President Trump is doing anything for his own benefit.”

Outrage is not an explanation. White House lawyers have already signed off on President Trump accepting a $400 million jet from Qatar that he would be free to use when he leaves office. The President is hosting a dinner for top untraceable, unlimited contributors to his bitcoin. Raising fees at Mar-a-Lago to $1 million, raising money to run for office in 2028, making golf and real estate deals with foreign countries – all these activities pad his pockets obviously and openly.

Robert Kagan's 2018 book “The Jungle Grows Back” is a concise description of how peace after World War II came about. It was a deliberate, negotiated, values-based commitment of the western powers. Unique contributions from the United States made it possible.

Every president, save one, from Truman to Biden understood the importance of this foundation. Each recognized the benefits of sacrifice and the value of restraint.

Today, the President picks unnecessary fights with allies and applauds the brilliance of adversaries. He provides an ugly model of ideological repression and demonstrates utter contempt for judicial review. His actions and attitude give carte blanche to other strongmen around the world.

This Sunday, the President said he didn't know if the Fifth Amendment applied to people residing in the country, but in any event it was terribly inconvenient. He complained that courts are interfering with his authority. He said we are in an emergency – a lot of emergencies – that won't let up until he says so.

Do you share his confusion about the application of the Fifth Amendment? That constitutional law has no real world application? Do you agree, as he has said, that he who saves the country breaks no law?