#183) Loyalty vs. Competence

March 15, 2018

Dear Mr. President,

It will come as no surprise to you that I was never a fan of Rex Tillerson and I'm not sad to see him go, however, he did have a good head on his shoulders, seemed rational, reasonable, and at least open to new ideas.  The same cannot be said for his replacement, Mike Pompeo.  Mike Pompeo is a yes man.  He will tell you what you want to hear when you want to hear it and that will make you very happy (at least for a while).  It will also make the world a much more dangerous and unstable place because a Secretary of State's job is not to assuage your fragile ego and tell you what you want to hear, but to maintain world order while securing the peace and prosperity of our country within that order.

I find it ironic that you portray yourself as a manager and deal-maker (in fact, I believe these were the only relevant skills on your resume for the job of POTUS) but are failing colossally at both.  You reward loyalty above skill or experience no matter how many times it blows up in your face.  (Isn't the very definition of insanity doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results?)  Choosing devotion over competence in your staff not only makes you an ineffective leader, it also makes our country unstable.  I guess it's hard for you to see this when your most trusted advisor is only yourself and you fire anyone who might point it out to you.

I've said it before but I'll say it again:  you are dangerously unfit to hold the office of President of the United States.

Sincerely,

Amy Beaton

#182) Truth in Numbers

Paul Ryan

Speaker of the House

H-232 The Capital

Washington, DC  20515

March 14, 2018

Dear Mr. Speaker,

I like data.  I find that numbers can really help to give shape to ideas.  Here are some numbers for you to think about today while tens of thousands of public school students and staff walk out of their schools to bring awareness to the need for reasonable gun control laws in this country.

There are 5 million NRA members in the United States.

There are over 200 million registered voters in the United States (that's 195 million voters who are not NRA members) 

In 2018, the millennial generation (people aged 18-34) is set to pass baby boomers as the largest voter eligible group in the country. 

8,346,246 teenagers who weren't old enough to vote in 2016 will be eligible in 2018.

16,692,493 will be eligible to vote in 2020.

I don't think the odds are in your favor on this one.  I think you and the Republican Party should be bracing yourselves for some very disruptive mid-term elections this fall and then a complete sea change in 2020. 

Don't say you weren't warned.

Sincerely,

Amy Beaton

P.S.  I saw a great bumper sticker this morning that said, "You can't fix stupid, but you can vote it out of office."

#181) Steel and Aluminum Tariffs

March 2, 2018

Dear Mr. President,

I may be a little out of my depth here, but I'd like to weigh in on your recent decision to put a 25% tax on steel imports and a 10% tax on aluminum imports coming into this country (because sometimes an unvarnished outsider's perspective really can help to clarify things).

From where I'm sitting you, and your administration, have had a colossally awful couple of weeks.  You're losing critical staff left and right, every teenager in America hates you, massive gun control rallies are planned all over the country for later this month, your good buddies at the NRA are publicly dissing you, and calling Jeff Sessions mean names on Twitter seems to have backfired.  So I totally understand your need to save face and do something to rally your voter base.  In other words, you need a "win".  I get it.  But imposing huge tariffs on steel and aluminum imports and possibly sparking a global trade war is not the best way to do that.

Republican Senator Ben Sasse said, "You'd expect a policy this bad from a leftist administration not a supposedly Republican one."  The Canadian Foreign Minister as well as several officials from the EU  also made very derogatory public comments about your plan.  And China flat out said it was, "stupid."  (I am not making this up.  They literally said it was "stupid".)

These tariffs will definitely make the steel and aluminum industry happy, but they are the only people who will be happy because these tariffs will most likely increase prices for American consumers.  Anything an American might want to purchase that is made with steel or aluminum will be more expensive plus prices on things that we import from other countries will probably rise as our trading partners seek retaliation for your short-sighted protectionism.  So basically, it looks as if you have prioritized the needs of 115,000 steel and aluminum workers over the needs of millions of consumers.  Hmmmmm, I'm not an economist but this seems like a bad idea to me.

I guess this is what happens when your most trusted advisor is yourself and yourself doesn't really know what he's doing.

Sincerely,

Amy Beaton