This is a response to Norman Smith’s letter of April 23, which commented on my letter of April 16.

Smith wrote that I “… blame all of the ills of this country on the Democrats and fraudulent independents.” That is an erroneous interpretation of my remarks. However, President Trump did inherit a number of serious problems from the Obama administration.

People serving in elected office will have opponents waiting to defeat them or their legislation. Senate leader Mitch McConnell indicated that the Republican goal was to make sure that then-president Barack Obama would not serve a second term (McConnell didn’t succeed). That was an election issue, not one of legislation, and is not the same as the current nonproductive strategy of the majority House Democrats, who are blocking every bill connected to President Trump. As the majority in the House, they should be proposing solutions to the nation’s problems and attempting to work something out with the majority Senate Republicans.

In most legislative bodies, the minority doesn’t stop proposing solutions to the problems. Although now being the majority, Nancy Pelosi’s Democratic Party has not come forward with any help on national defense, border security or infrastructure roads and bridges.

I am unhappy that Republicans did not come forward with an affordable health care plan when they had control of both the House and Senate. By using the smart insurance-systems people in America, it should have been done.
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Thomas Shields, Auburn