[Vision2020] Not so fast with claims about Trump's achievements

[Tom Hansen]

Courtesy of today’s (December 7, 2017) Moscow-Pullman Daily News with thanks to Nick Gier.

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His View: Not so fast with claims about Trump's achievements

In his Nov. 17 letter, Bill Tozer sang the praises of the Donald Trump presidency. It is always questionable for any president to make claims solely for himself, but for the sake of argument, let's just say that Barack Obama is responsible for his eight years as president just as Trump is for his 11 months.

Tozer offers the "soaring" stock market as his first brief, but under Obama the S&P 500 increased by 182 percent; the Dow Jones more than doubled its value; and the tech-heavy Nasdaq went up 250 percent. It is doubtful, especially since many experts believe that stocks are now overvalued, that Trump will ever best Obama's record.

Tozer notes "unemployment is at its lowest rate in 17 years," which is now at 4.1 percent. But Obama brought it down from a high of 10 percent at the end of 2009 to 4.7 percent at the beginning of this year. Obama was criticized for a record number of those (especially males) no longer seeking employment, but the number is even higher under Trump.

Obama reduced the annual deficit from 10 percent to 3.2 percent. Under Trump it has risen to 3.5 percent. It will no doubt climb higher with the new tax cuts. GOP leaders are delusional in thinking the economy will grow enough to reduce that deficit.

Tozer claims "manufacturing is on the rise," but there are only 125,000 new jobs there. Mike Pence loves to boast about what he did for Indiana as governor, but that state has lost 5,000 manufacturing jobs since he became vice president.

According to Good Jobs Nation, the economy has lost 93,000 jobs due to foreign competition since Trump's election.

One year ago, at a Carrier furnace plant in Indiana, candidate Trump promised that "companies are not going to leave the United States anymore without consequences." The loss of jobs overseas is actually occurring at a faster rate than under Obama. For example, this year, 11 percent of layoffs by big federal contractors were due to foreign competition, but it was only 4 percent during Obama's last five years.

In July, Trump boasted he had created 45,000 new coal jobs, but the actual figure is now only 1,600. During Obama's last 6 months, 1,300 miners were added.

Tozer writes, "The welfare state, which grew by almost 20 percent during the last administration, is turning around."

One would expect that in an economy that suffered the worst recession since the Great Depression, many more people would be in legitimate need.

One would also think it is a good thing people were able to buy groceries rather than go hungry. Already in 2014, with declining unemployment, the number of Americans on food stamps started going down, so Trump is not necessarily responsible for the continued decline this year.

Tozer praises Trump for "confronting North Korean and Iranian nuclear weapons ambitions." Now that Trump has decided not to certify the Iran nuclear deal, the danger is that the Iranians will back out and return to building their first weapons.

Under the Bill Clinton administration, some progress had been made in reducing North Korea's nuclear capacities. George W. Bush and Dick Cheney, however, decided Clinton's policy was too soft, and the result was that their hard line made North Korea double down on its nuclear program.

Obama managed to stop Iranian nukes, but it is now too late for North Korea. Thanks to Republican administrations, we now have to contain a new unrestrained nuclear power in Northeast Asia. Trump's threat to destroy Kim Jung Un and his people now puts millions of South Koreans, Japanese and possibly Americans at extreme risk. Trump is just as much a danger to the world as Kim.

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Seeya 'round town, Moscow, because . . .

"Moscow Cares" (the most fun you can have with your pants on)
http://www.MoscowCares.com
  
Tom Hansen
Moscow, Idaho
  
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