LETTER ;Defying Constitution brought Trump to impeachment brink

To Ozaukee Press:

This letter takes issue with a point made by Roy Wetzel in his letter to the editor in last week’s Ozaukee Press regarding President Donald Trump and the impeachment hearings.

One of the two articles of impeachment of Trump has to do with the obstruction of Congress. According to Wetzel, “Why should our president give credibility to the circus hearings conducted by the House of
Representatives by giving them any documents to prove his innocence?”

Why? There are three co-equal branches of the federal government. One of the
roles of the legislative branch is the approval of spending taxpayer dollars. This duty specified by the Constitution includes the power to investigate how and why the executive branch spends the money flowing out of taxpayer pockets.

Trump hasn’t just refused to cooperate with Congressional subpenas for documents and witnesses around the impeachment process; he has conducted an unprecedented stonewalling on just about all Congressional investigations.

 If not stopped, this means he can do what he wants and spend what he wants
with no check on his actions.

The issue comes down to this: Our country tossed out the rule by a king over 230 years ago. This defiance by Trump sets up another go-round at having a monarch and leaves us with a government that the founding fathers didn’t want us to have.

What Washington, Jefferson, Hamilton and the rest of those great men wanted was a democratic republic—if we can keep it, Benjamin Franklin warned. Right now if we let Donald Trump have his way, we well might not keep it.

And by the way, Mr. Wetzel’s assertion that the Democrats have kept the Republicans out of the hearings is absolutely not true.

Keith Schmitz
Milwaukee