#resist

Last week the president who bragged about not paying income tax and who has never shown the American public his tax returns gave a speech on tax reform in Springfield, Missouri.

Once again his plan was small on details, but he assured us the poor and middleclass would see huge benefits.

His 2017 version of trickle–down economics, (we know how well that worked in the ‘80s), just like his failed healthcare scheme, promises to give major tax breaks to himself and his very rich friends, costing an estimated 6 trillion bucks in revenue over the next two decades while giving the poor and middleclass very little relief.

So much for Republican fiscal responsibility.

Meanwhile, on the same day Trump was spewing his propaganda, approximately 2,000 people responded by taking to the Springfield streets to protest his stand on healthcare, immigration, Russian ties, racism and climate change.

Trump, with the encouragement of Attorney General Jeff Sessions, is fulfilling his promise to his base and ending the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program. DACA, the Obama-era policy that protected children who arrived in the US without documentation and kept them safe from deportation, will affect 800,000 Dreamers.

These kids, through no fault of their own, and who are now between the ages of 25 and 35 years, now face deportation as soon as six months from now.

Imagine growing up almost your entire life in this country, submerged in the only culture you know, working, paying taxes and being a good citizen, only to be told you are not welcome, we are separating you from your friends and family and kicking you out of the only home and country you’ve known.

It’s unconscionable, and Trump and his fellow heartless Republicans should be ashamed and shamed.

Resistance is key and we need to keep showing that this racist, avaricious and dangerous president does not represent our American values. It’s our constitutional right and duty.

John Rankine