The following Letters to the Editor are from the August 2025 issue of The Lenawee Voice. Letters should be 300 words or fewer and may be emailed to [email protected]. If space is limited, preference will be given to local authors and local topics. Please include your town of residence and a phone number for verification.
Walberg talks, doesn’t listen
I attended a recent town hall by Congressmen Tim Walberg. He said many of those in attendance would not agree with him. He was right. Almost everyone held different opinions than the congressman. He was adamant in his support of all the policies of the Trump administration. He gave absolutely no credence nor consideration to the opinions of the roughly 60 people in attendance. He simply chose to talk, not to listen.
To a question about how he would allay fears about the rise of authoritarianism in our country, Mr. Walberg answered, “I probably can’t. We will stand up if this administration crosses the line in carrying out the function of protecting its citizens and use appropriate means. Let me ask this question. Where was your concern with the authoritarianism of Biden restricting freedoms of people on our side of the aisle? I don’t see an authoritarian government. If I see it coming, if I see him overstepping that line, I’ll stand up against it.” When repeatedly asked where the line was, he refused to answer the question.
The question was asked “What about cutting of taxes for the wealthy?” Mr. Walberg answered, “There were no billionaire tax cuts. They were continued and made permanent for you and for small businesses that weren’t permanent until we passed the Big Beautiful Bill. If we didn’t pass that bill, you all would have received a 27% tax increase. Pay more if you have that opportunity. Next question.”
What Walberg failed to say was that many in Congress didn’t want to extend the 27% tax cut for the wealthiest, but only extend it for the lower and middle classes.
I asked Mr. Walberg when he would respond to Lenawee Indivisible’s requests for a town hall in Lenawee County. He responded, “You represent a Democratic organization, never gonna happen.” Perhaps Mr. Walberg only cares for those constituents who voted for him?
— Mitch Myers, Adrian
Just another huckster
My brother-in-law just helped his lifelong friend bring in more than 150 acres of soybeans out near Deerfield, much of which will now wait in storage to rot, because the biggest foreign market for the beans just shifted its orders to Brazil. That market would be China, a country of more than a billion people who eat a lot of soy.
Like many rural counties across America, Lenawee broke strong for Trump in 2024, and now this president is using the rural economy as a pawn in a badly-played (and unnecessary) game of Trade War. China was also a major importer of corn and wheat, but the U.S. head of state has decided to try insults, threats, and bullying to prosecute an ill-conceived “reindustrialization strategy,” including tariffs levied over petty personal grudges.
When Trump’s tariff strategy was announced, American companies began stockpiling, and those stockpiles will soon begin running out. Then the American people will feel tariffs for what they are: inflation fuel in the form of a consumer tax. Industries using steel, copper, and aluminum are already jacking up prices and implementing hiring freezes. The average American auto price just reached a new record of $50,000. Readers can look up the word “stagflation” to see what’s on the horizon.
You know who’s going to get tens of billions of dollars in aid now? Argentina’s government, headed by a crackpot who ran their economy into a ditch. Trump is even talking about buying Argentine beef — another slap in the face of U.S. agriculture. But why Argentina? Well, it turns out that Treasury Secretary Scott Bessant’s hedge-fund pals were about to lose their shirts in the Argentine crash.
Turns out Trump wasn’t a man of the people after all — just another billionaire New York huckster. We bought a pig in a poke.
— Stan Goff, Adrian
