Letters: Graham not out of touch

John Pettigrew needs to sit back and take a chill pill (“Graham out of touch with South Carolina,” Feb. 2). Sen. Graham was using a joke to say he was against President Trump’s plan to build a wall and impose a 20 percent tax on imported goods from Mexico to pay for it.

The fact that he used the cost of Corona beer and tequila to show that the cost would be passed on to the American consumer actually amused me.

When you look at the billions of dollars worth of Mexican beer that Americans drink each year and the fact that we drink about 75 percent of Mexico’s tequila, it was a pretty appropriate reference.

In 2015 we imported $295 billion worth of goods from Mexico: cars, trucks, TVs, food and appliances. Think what a 20 percent tax on $295 billion would cost U.S. consumers.

We do have an immigration problem, but this wall and a tax on imports are not going to solve it.

This story was originally published February 26, 2017 at 6:41 PM with the headline "Letters: Graham not out of touch."