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It is no surprise that in the Dec. 13 article “Trump hedges on food price promise” the president-elect said that bringing down grocery prices will be “very hard,” which is the direct opposite of what he said on the campaign trail when stating he would bring down the prices for eggs and bacon. He also made a campaign promise that he would bring down the price of gas by at least $1 a gallon. Now he has said he is going to put a 25% tariff on Canada, who happens to be the biggest exporter of crude oil into the United States. Canada’s reply: If he does that, the price of fuel will go up!
Economists across the nation warned that the president-elect’s tariff policies would increase the costs of goods for U.S. consumers. And yet 77 million Americans voted for the man who has been bankrupt six times and has repeatedly been known to fabricate the truth to get what he wants. How many warnings will voters need before they vote for policies that actually would work to lower prices? Leading economists warned us what a second term of Donald Trump’s policies would mean and now Canada has warned us. I was one of the 75 million who voted for his opponent because she had actually had policies to deal with price gouging by corporations, and with high housing and energy prices — not just rhetoric to get elected. Now all of us will have to live with the consequences of the voters who actually believed what he said.
Jan McCarthy, Eden Prairie
MINNEAPOLIS BUDGET
Take public safety seriously
In 2021, Minneapolis voters soundly rejected a ballot measure that would have defunded and replaced the Minneapolis Police Department. Last week, the Minneapolis City Council ignored the wishes of their constituents by voting for a budget that will defund the police by cutting $1.8 million from Mayor Jacob Frey’s proposed police department budget (“Frey cites ‘ideology’ in veto of ′25 budget,” Dec. 12 and “City Council votes to override Frey’s budget veto,” Dec. 13). Police reform and public safety are stated top priorities for the City Council, yet they voted to cut $500,000 from the police recruitment campaign fund.
Bewildering decisions by the City Council are all too common these days, but blatantly ignoring their constituents and making the city less safe by reducing the number of police officers is beyond the pale. The entire City Council is up for election next year, giving us a chance to replace them with rational council members more in tune with voters and committed to public safety.
Steve Millikan, Minneapolis