Dear President Trump:

Now that you and the Republican Party have shown a lack of coherence on the issue of health care reform, perhaps you can admit that the majority of the American public want to keep their insurance, Medicare, or Medicaid, and perhaps you can stop trying to take away their health care.

As you move on to “tax reform,” as you call it, we all know what you really mean. “Tax reform” means, for you and the Republican Party, to find a way to cut taxes for the rich, any everyone else can go screw themselves. The lie that such tax cuts will bolster our economy and create additional jobs has been told and disproved over and over again. It’s what then-candidate George H.W. Bush in 1980 called “voodoo economics,” and he hit the nail right on the head. I can only wish for you as much success in “tax reform” as you have achieved on health care.

If you do, indeed, pursue “tax reform,” I believe the American public has a right to see your tax returns. How else would be know how much your “reform” is intended to help you personally? If you don’t want to share your returns with us, then don’t start trying to play with our tax law.

So, if it turns out that “tax reform” does not become your next big objective, I imagine you will seek guidance from Vladimir Putin about what should be next. Oh? It’s hard now to communicate with the Russians because our FBI is listening to their communications? Gee whiz. It’s tough being a puppet, isn’t it?

Good day, sir.

Bruce J. Berger

Dear President Trump:

I’ve been thinking about that former first grade teacher who believes that her son’s extremely low-cost health insurance, obtained through Obamacare, has been the result of your health care law, a law that has only been proposed and has not gone into effect. I interviewed her in my imagination, and I thought you might like to read a transcript of the interview.

BJB:                So your son has low-cost health insurance now?

Woman:          Yes. When he was injured on his job, when he couldn’t work anymore, he got very cheap insurance. Praise President Trump!

BJB:                But Ma’am … That was Obamacare. President Trump’s proposals aren’t law yet and, anyway, they would take away the Medicaid expansion.

Woman:          That’s a lie. First of all, Obamacare was a disaster. I heard all about it Rush Limbaugh. And second, Obama is a Muslim! No, it was President Trump who made the law that gave my son his health insurance.

BJB:                But Ma’am … Presidents don’t make the law. Only Congress can make a law.

Woman:          “Fake news! Sad!”

BJB:                You do understand about the three branches of government, right? Congress makes the laws and …

Woman:          You’re from the failing news media, aren’t you?

BJB:                I’m just …

Woman:          Now get this straight. It was Obama that was president during 9/11. It was Obama that was president when this country went into a recession. It was Trump that brought us out of the recession. Do you understand?

BJB:                Only too well.

I’ll end the transcript there, Mr. President. I thought it would encourage you to know how much you’ve helped this woman’s son and her mental state.

But to think that such a woman was put in charge of teaching our six-year-olds. To think that your election as our president depended upon her and others like her. Doesn’t it boggle the imagination?

Good day, Mr. President.

Very truly yours,

 

Bruce J. Berger

 

Dear President Trump,

Well, Mr. President, I have received another one of your stock emails, given that I have registered on your whitehouse.gov website. Yesterday, you proudly told me that “under [your] leadership, the United States will be the world’s great magnet for innovation and job creation.”

How is that possible, Mr. President, when you seek to prevent Muslims from entering the United States? At least one hundred and twenty-seven (127) companies – including, e.g., Apple, Facebook, Google, Levi Strauss & Co., Rocket Fuel, Inc. – now have joined in an amicus brief decrying the lack of wisdom of your Muslim ban. Here’s what their brief says about your Executive Order:

It creates “inflicts significant harm on American businesses, innovation, and growth … [and] makes it more difficult and expensive for U.S. companies to recruit, hire, and retain some of the world’s best employees. It disrupts ongoing business operations. And it threatens companies’ ability to attract talent, business, and investment in the United States.

At least sixteen (16) institutions of higher education – including many in states that voted for you – have likewise opposed your Executive Order. Our business and academic leaders are telling you that your Executive Order, banning Muslims, will prevent their businesses and universities from hiring the best and brightest talent from overseas, to the detriment of our country’s well-being.

You deem the United States a “magnet” under your leadership? That is laughable, when you want to build a wall around us and when you pursue a flawed policy that thumbs its nose at the rest of the world.

I suggest, sir, that it’s time for you to listen to America’s business leaders and academic leaders. Give up on your Executive Order banning Muslims.

Very truly yours,

Bruce J. Berger

Dear President Trump:

Apparently, you’re not embarrassed by the credible commentary likening you to Adolf Hitler and your reign to that of the Nazis. Secretly, I have no doubt, you see Hitler as a hero, much as you now see Putin. You’ve told us you like “strong” leaders, you’ve encouraged your supporters to beat up protestors, you’ve winked at the Ku Klux Klan and the white supremacists. Like Hitler, you’ve drummed up hatred against minorities and promised to make your country “great” again. Like Hitler, you call the truth “fake news.” Given your love for Hitler, I thought you might enjoy the following poem, which I’ve written on your behalf.

What Happened to the Sun?

 

Night has fallen on America

What we think is the sun rising

Is pure illusion

 

The earth has stopped spinning

America’s voters have ganged up on it

Pushing hard together against its spin

Pushing hard to reverse it the way Superman did

 

To bring us back to that greatness of the past

 

Oh joy! When the poor can go without medical care!

Oh happy days! When men can grab women’s crotches!

Oh the ecstasy! When facts no longer matter!

 

Oh joy of segregation! Hallelujah!

Oh happy days of pollution! Praise be to the Almighty!

Oh the ecstasy of prayer in public schools! Sing to Him a new song!

 

I hear Sieg Heil and see him raise his hand in that unforgettable salute.

 

Good day, sir.

Bruce J. Berger

Hi readers … this is a reminder of my short story collection available on Amazon, entitled Adel: A Novel in Linked Stories,

Source: To President Trump About Health Care

Dear President Trump:

Can you explain to me why you want to cut taxes for the rich to take health care away from the poor? Because, let’s face it, sir, isn’t that what your plan is? You don’t feel that health care is a right. You feel, instead, that it’s a privilege for the wealthy. You wouldn’t yourself want without health care, nor your children, nor your grandchildren, but it’s not a problem for you because of your wealth.

And your species of wealthy – arrogant, unfeeling – never wants to pay a dime to help the less fortunate. You feel it’s your G-d given right to lord it over others. You feel somehow that you deserve all your good fortune and wealth and never see that the fabric of our country depends upon all of us, wealthy and poor alike. You remind me of that poor Marie Antoinette who shrugged off inequality in her world by telling the poor to “eat cake.”

So, I take back my opening question. You don’t have to tell me what I already know.

Very truly yours,

Bruce J. Berger

 

March 6, 2017

Dear Mr. President:

What will you do next to undermine our democracy? What will you do next to encourage the haters in the country – the racists, the bigots – to use violence? What will you do next to make all free and decent people around the world gasp in astonishment at your ignorance and petulance? Sadly, every day of your administration brings with it yet another blow to the values that made America great: compassion, integrity, honesty, and hard work.

For years, you accused President Obama, falsely, of not having been born in this country. You knew you were lying; it was your purpose to lie. The continued lies that you have piled up would fill libraries. The latest lie is more of the same, i.e., the accusation that President Obama illegally wiretapped your phones. You know there’s not a shred of evidence to support that lie, but you don’t care, because your supporters love the lies, will believe the lies, and, if your lies rip up this country, how happy you will be! For sure, as you plan to fire employees at EPA because you don’t care about the environment, as you plan to fire State Department employees because you don’t care about diplomacy, as you plan to destroy NOAA because it dares analyze climate change, you are now asking Congress to waste millions of dollars investigating your groundless claims. Your intent to distract everyone from the truth of your perfidious contacts with Russia, to subvert a free, democratic election, is patently obvious. But, I advise you, Mr. President, sir, your effort will fail.

It’s not too late to save yourself, sir. Come clean. Retract all your lies. You can plead insanity. Everyone will believe it.

Yours with increasing disgust at your behavior,

 

Bruce J. Berger

 

March 5, 2017

Dear Mr. President:

You’ve written back to me, only to put in front of my face a “poll” to see which of your many “accomplishments” I think is most important? Are you kidding?

For example, you want to know whether I think your “Negotiating with companies to bring thousands of jobs back to America” is a great accomplishment. Dear Mr. President! What have you been ingesting? You haven’t brought any jobs back to America. You are going to cost us tens of thousands of American jobs, when the trade war you will inevitably ignite makes it impossible for American companies to sell their goods abroad. You want to make America great again? That’s laughable, when in fact you want to isolate America. Your Republican colleagues in Congress don’t want to see the trade war that you are going to cause, but it looks like you’re going to bully them into it. What accomplishment, I ask again?

Then you suggest that maybe your most wonderful accomplishment is “Minimizing the burden of Obamacare, while clearing a path toward repeal and replace.” Come on, Mr. President. All you want to do is deprive millions of poor Americans of their newly-obtained medical insurance, meaning for sure that many will die because they can no longer access medical care. You obviously feel that’s all right, don’t you, because those will be poor people and, in your world view, they don’t count. I am sorry, Mr. President. I really don’t see that as an accomplishment. I see that as perfidy.

The Bible tells us to protect the neediest among us. Maybe you should spend some time reading it, Mr. President, instead of watching Fox News. Or have one of your staff read it and summarize it for you in 140 characters. Or better yet, I can do that for you right now, in fact. “Love thy neighbor as thyself.” That was only 29 characters. Think how much more you might learn in just one good tweet.

Please, instead of sending me these specious polls in the future, send me some real answers to my correspondence.

Yours expectantly.

Bruce J. Berger

Dear President Trump,

There’s a proverb you’ve probably heard of: “Monkey see, monkey do.” How does this apply to you? Well, sir, when the people you bring into your administration see how you lie, they lie as well. When your close friend Jeff Sessions lies to Congress about not having contacts with the Russians during the campaign, is he not just emulating your own example? Is this lie not on par with your Birther accusations and your swearing that you personally saw thousands of American Muslims celebrating on 9-11 and countless other lies that you have told?

You should demand Sessions’s resignation immediately. You should not tolerate anyone in your administration who lies to Congress, regardless of the rank they now hold. But, of all the people caught in a lie, the top law enforcement officer of the federal government is the one whose lies will do the most damage. The American people need to believe that those who enforce the law are honest. You say it’s important for people here to obey the law, so how can the Attorney General commit perjury and gets away with it?

And, Mr. President, while you are removing him from office, look to your own lies as well. Start to think about the contagious effect of a president’s lying. Decide yourself to stop the poison of lies that have spread from you through the rest of the country.

Yours in prayers for truth,

Bruce J. Berger