By Tom H. Hastings
Joe Biden is ruining America. We know this because Ron Johnson said so on Fox News. Let’s count the ways:
- His administration has produced the sustained lowest unemployment in decades–and even more importantly, has achieved much more equity in rural employment as well as in employment amongst historically marginalized communities. According to Secretary of the Treasury Janet Yellen, “Before the pandemic, the unemployment rate was nearly 20% higher in rural than in metropolitan areas. That large gap has been eliminated.” Terrible, right?
- Massive student loan forgiveness, especially for those in public service sector jobs, such as nurses, educators, etc. According to Fox Business News on 27 March 2024, “Only about 7,000 public service borrowers received forgiveness prior to the Biden Administration, now that total hovers closer to 870,000.” How awful!
- Biden’s infrastructure act has resulted in some 40,000 brand-new construction projects to upgrade America’s roads, tunnels, airport terminals, Superfund clean-up, and–as we see so tragically this past week–more than 7800 desperately needed bridge repairs and upgrades. Damn you, Biden!
- Despite terrible court rulings that overturn voter-approved gun control measures, Biden has done as much unilaterally as possible for school safety, including, according to Politico, “Biden established the Office of Gun Violence Prevention, and in 2023 schools were awarded $286 million in federal dollars to support student wellness and school mental health professionals.” But what if you only stopped a couple of mass casualty events, huh? You probably only saved a few dozen kids. So inadequate!
- USA Today reports that Biden has negotiated lower life-saving drug costs for those in need, including elderly Americans on fixed incomes. “For the first time, the federal law has empowered the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, or CMS, to negotiate lower Medicare drug prices. The Biden administration has named the first 10 diabetes, heart disease and cancer drugs that Medicare will negotiate.” What a horrible outcome!
Just ruinous, as any MAGA mouthpiece will affirm. And the list goes on…
Contrast that to how Trump saved America:
- When Dear Leader Donald Trump was in the White House, he saved America with his tax reform (if by America we mean the uber-rich, who benefitted by far the most from the “tax reform” that was the only significant piece of legislation he passed, even when he had the willing assistance of both the House and Senate, as well as his increasingly packed Supreme Court). Indeed, as Reuters noted, “The Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, signed by Trump in December 2017, was the most significant restructuring of the U.S. tax system since the 1980s. It slashed the rate companies pay in the United States from 35% to 21%, cut minimum, estate and gift taxes for the very wealthy.” Saving the right people!
- According to the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights, Trump signed many Executive Orders rolling back civil rights and human rights, also including many environmental and consumer protections–but once again, this profited large corporations handsomely. The elites of America thank you!
As Bible-salesman, twice-impeached, and 88 felony indictment-charged 2024 candidate Trump said in 2016, about Hillary Clinton’s email “scandal,” (which again and again resulted in “no finding”) it would be impossible for anyone under criminal indictment to govern and that if a president were investigated for felonious indictments it would grind the government to a halt.
Thanks again, Trump, for your generous willingness to be our savior. You and you alone, Baby!
Dr. Tom H. Hastings, PeaceVoice Senior Editor, is Coördinator of Conflict Resolution BA/BS degree programs and certificates at Portland State University.