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Trump must be held accountable

To the editor:

Is it not quite ironic and most hypocritical that, traditionally, the Republican Party, which has long promoted itself as the personification of fiscal conservatism and responsibility while strongly deriding budget deficits when they have occurred under a Democratic-led federal government, surprisingly now apparently views such not to be a matter of even marginal concern as the GOP is now rapidly increasing the federal deficit to literally unprecedented levels? Perhaps the once-proud Republican Party, which long stood for strong principles, many of which it has recently contradicted or abandoned, is becoming the “Party of Trump.”

According to the U.S. Treasury Department, the federal budget has reached a deficit of $208 billion, and growing, as of March, which is an increase in excess of $32 billion from one year ago, and that the deficit has already grown by 18.4 percent during the previous year under President Trump and congressional Republicans.

In addition, the Congressional Budget office has projected that the federal deficit will exceed $1 trillion by 2020, mainly as a result of the recent Trump tax cuts that were designed to inordinately benefit the wealthiest among us, and that the annual deficits will average 4.9 percent of our gross domestic product, which is considerably higher than at any time in our great nation since World War II, with the exception of 2008-09, when we were struggling to recover from the depths of the Great Recession, yet Republicans remain virtually silent over matters of such grave concern.

Also, President Trump and his Republican cohorts have severely criticized his Democratic presidential opponent, Hillary Clinton, for her perceived lack of transparency. However, according to The Associated Press, the Trump administration already has set a record for the censorship of public records, as it has failed to provide requested records or censored 78 percent of the 823,222 such requests made under the Freedom of Information Act to date.

I also find it quite hypocritical indeed that, as reported by vox.com, Trump, who verbally has long advocated on behalf of American workers during his candidacy and into his presidency, through the Trump organization in 2016-17 hired 144 “foreign guest workers” for seasonal positions, while hiring only one American worker who was available for such employment.

It is now becoming even more apparent that Trump’s words, consistently supported by his Republican colleagues, are oftentimes diametrically opposite of his opinions. And for such he should be held accountable.

Richard Hord

Martins Ferry

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