Dear Editor,
This letter is in response to Congressman Gillette’s column, “Tariffs are not the problem—they are the plan.”
He claims that companies have started bringing jobs back to the US, but he doesn’t want to tell us how many, when or where. This is because none of these jobs will ever come to Mohave County. Ford, GM, Hyundai, U.S. Steel: These are companies that have no factories in Arizona. These jobs will go to Michigan and Ohio, because who would pay to air condition a huge factory in the middle of the desert? These opportunities may as well be in Africa for all the good it does Kingman residents.
You say “tariffs are the plan,” but that plan doesn’t help me. It wasn’t the plan we voted for. The only reason Arizonans gave your boss his job is because he promised to bring the price of groceries down. We didn’t vote for higher tariff-taxes with the hope that in five or seven years we could possibly get better jobs so that THEN we could afford groceries. That wasn’t the deal.
I miss going to McDonald’s once in a while for an Egg McMuffin, hash browns and orange juice. It’s been years because the last time I went, it cost $16.47. I’ve learned to make them at home to save money, but now eggs have gotten so expensive that I can’t use the good eggs that I like best. I can’t afford olive oil at all anymore. I eat cold cereal for dinner once a week to keep costs down, but I still run out of money for food for the last 3 or 4 days of the month, unless I dip into savings. Which happens often.
With respect to Congressman Gillette, he sounds like a lifelong government employee who’s never had to work a real job in his entire life. He’s never had to worry about rent going up or how to afford food for his family like his constituents do every day. Call your Representative John Gillette at (602) 926-4100 and tell him we need help with prices now.
Brian Walter
