Survivalist Realtor…

Dear Editor,
“Survivalist” Realtor Chris Walsh, in his two- page ad recently in area publications, believes that Donald Trump, “Realtor-in-chief,” would make things better for working Americans. He won’t if he treats them like the immigrants who helped build his Tower or the workers who built his casinos, refusing to pay them. Or like the renters whom he was charged with discriminating against.
The loss of jobs in our auto and steel industries began in the 1980s when automation expanded, but he paints a bleak economic picture of our economy—ignoring the solid year of middle-class income growth, the record 78 months of job growth, the 4.9 percent unemployment rate, a record low uninsured rate, and low gasoline prices—all achieved under the Obama administration.
Falsely claiming “unhindered open immigration” (there have been a record number of border arrests recently), he ignores Trump’s plan to deport millions of illegal immigrants, harming employers trying to fill their jobs.
Despite a lack of good-paying jobs in North Idaho, some are being created in aerospace and high-technology—and the problem is trying to fill them with qualified workers. He neglects to mention that the only way we are going to fill these jobs with local people is to invest in education, starting with our school systems.
A start would be for our GOP dominated legislature to finally use some of our tax, and lottery, money to rebuild our school buildings and provide adequate maintenance.

James W. Ramsey
Kootenai