Regarding the editorial “Pritzker gets big win with Hyundai Translead’s Joliet investment” (March 23): The Tribune Editorial Board trying to find a good story about Gov. JB Pritzker doing something of value for the taxpayers of Illinois is like trying to find a needle in a haystack. The board indicating that Pritzker should get most of the credit for this “unvarnished win” because of his seven years of cheerleading and marketing is ridiculous. A quick check of his record from 2019 through 2023 shows Illinois lost hundreds of businesses!
I am certain this has grown since. Has Pritzker taken credit for these tremendous losses? No, he has not.
While the board correctly states that Caterpillar moving out was a big loss and the Lion Electric bet was a debacle, it fails to mention the other losses, especially Citadel, which Pritzker quite frankly pushed out of the state due to his immense hubris.
Additionally, if the board is going to praise Pritzker for this modest win, where is the same praise for President Donald Trump, who announced last year that Hyundai was going to invest $21 billion in the U.S. over four years aimed at strengthening its U.S. automotive supply chain? Does this project not fill that bill?
Perhaps if Pritzker did not fight all things Trump, maybe Illinois would have gotten the $5.8 billion Hyundai steel plant being built in Louisiana rather than the scraps.
— Philip Milord, Western Springs
Federal government at fault
Willie Wilson (“Pritzker should suspend Illinois’ gas tax for 60 days,” March 26) is right about one thing: Illinoisans are being bled dry at the pump. But his 60-day gas tax holiday idea is a political Band-Aid for a much deeper wound. The current surge in gas prices isn’t a market fluctuation — it is a direct result of the escalating conflict in Iran, a war that the citizens of Illinois did not start, did not vote for and should not be forced to subsidize.
Washington is essentially forcing local commuters to act as the war chest for the White House’s foreign policy. Why should our state budget be dinged for something happening more than 6,000 miles away that the state did not cause?
Wilson’s “holiday” wouldn’t be the win he claims. If we were to suspend the tax without a permanent plan, we would simply be trading high gas prices today for lost investments and crumbling bridges tomorrow. We shouldn’t be choosing between war-inflated gas and unsafe roads.
Instead of a 60-day gimmick, the governor should be demanding federal reimbursements to offset these costs. If the federal government wants to drive up the price of oil with military intervention, it — not the Illinois taxpayer — should be the one to provide the relief.
— Stephen Hogan, Westmont
Our troops in harm’s way
For all parents and grandparents with loved ones in military service: Two years ago, I encouraged my grandson not to reenlist in the Navy. I anticipated the reelection of Donald Trump and was horrified that my grandson’s commander in chief might be a man who described military members as losers and suckers for enlisting in the first place. Thank God he listened to me.
Now Trump has ignited a war in Iran based on his lies about the immediacy of Iran having nuclear capability and decimating Israel. Just as lies were used to justify our attack on Iraq over 20 years ago. And we paid a terrible price in the blood of our children and billions of dollars.
More disgusting is the fact that Trump is putting our men and women in the path of weapons that Russia is providing to Iran. And Trump also has lifted sanctions on Russia. He is a sycophant of Russian President Vladimir Putin. He is giddy with any show of Putin’s approval. And Ukrainians die.
And now our nation’s children and grandchildren may die by weapons that Putin gives to Iran. Where are Republican political leaders? Protecting Trump and therefore their jobs instead of our nation’s sons and daughters.
What a disgrace we are as a country. Why would those who were our allies join with us in this fight? We are no longer worthy of their trust and admiration.
— Karen Evans, Glen Ellyn
We shouldn’t gamble US lives
U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham, in a Fox News interview, said, “We did Iwo Jima. We can do this. The Marines, my money is always on the Marines,” as he defended the idea of sending U.S. ground troops to Iran to take Kharg Island. The 36-day Battle of Iwo Jima claimed the lives of more than 5,900 Marines and 800 Navy personnel, and 19,000 were wounded.
Graham wants to gamble on the lives of our Marines, but the money won’t be his. And the money to send our troops to ground warfare in Iran won’t come from the Witkoff, Kushner and Trump family enterprises.
We taxpayers do not want any of our hard-earned money to be used to send our loved ones to Iran to fight and die or suffer injuries in an unnecessary war. We don’t want to gamble a single life for Trump’s war.
— Jane Cox, Wheaton
Agents didn’t apprehend him
The Donald Trump administration is blaming the governor of Illinois and the mayor of Chicago for the killing of a young woman allegedly by a migrant. Trump’s masked and unidentified Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents spent several months in Chicago rounding up the “worst of the worst” as these immigrants maintained lawns, washed dishes and hung out in parking lots looking for work. Then a man from Venezuela who was wanted by local authorities allegedly killed an innocent college student.
Why didn’t immigration agents get this guy?
— Bob Begeske, Lockport
Trump trying to fix problem
Gov. JB Pritzker and Mayor Brandon Johnson can’t have it both ways. They fought against federal immigration agents doing their jobs in the Chicago area, which could have resulted in the arrest of the immigrant alleged to have murdered Loyola student Sheridan Gorman. Now, they are blaming President Donald Trump and federal agents for not doing their jobs. That’s rich.
As elected officials, they need to stand with law enforcement and work with them, not against them. Additionally, most of the blame for our present immigration problem lies with Congress for not passing any immigration reform for the past two decades.
Trump is just trying to fix the problems caused by others.
— Mike Kirchberg, Chicago
Immigration reform blocked
The tragic shooting of Sheridan Gorman, allegedly by a migrant who is undocumented, is appalling to all and does indicate that our immigration system needs drastic reform.
Bipartisan immigration reform has been offered twice before, in 2013 and again in 2024. Both times, it was blocked by Republicans who need immigration to be an election issue.
— Paul Breit, Tinley Park
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