Bill Gerling
Jefferson City
Dear Editor:
U.S. Rep. Blaine Luetkemeyer's recent spin in the Tribune praised Trump's alleged accomplishments and denigrated some of Biden's actions. There was no mention of Trump rallying his insurrectionists to walk to the Capitol to "fight like hell" for his supposedly stolen election. Hillary conceded election night.
When Obama was elected in 2008 he faced the worst recession since the Great Depression. Unemployment reached 10 percent. The unemployment rate when Trump was elected was 4.7 percent. It fell another 1.2 percent during his first three years before the pandemic. Tax cuts passed in 2017 have primarily benefited businesses and high-income earners. Between 2017-18 corporation income taxes fell 22.4 percent and their refunds increased 33.8 percent. Tax brackets changed from seven to six, benefiting high-income earners. Capital gains taxes were reduced, primarily benefiting the rich.
Veteran's Choice, which improved veterans' healthcare, passed in 2014 under Obama, not Trump as he continually lied about. Forbes gave Trump a mostly failing grade on analysis of his trade policies in most areas as a result of the tariff wars: stock market - U.S. companies lost 1.7 trillion, cost to consumers-average household paid $831 more, creating manufacturing jobs-resulted in 75,000 fewer jobs in steel and aluminum industries, cost to taxpayers-$28 billion to subsidize farmers losing exports, loss of foreign investment; trade deficit - virtually unchanged from 2016-19. Under the new NAFTA or USMCA treaty the chief agricultural benefits may go to dairy farmers selling milk products to Canadians.
Trump promised to build a Great Wall between Mexico and the United States with Mexico paying for it. Instead, he took approximately $15 billion from the Defense Department to build a few miles of new wall and replacement for older walls when Congress wouldn't appropriate the money he wanted. The Keystone Pipeline has always been controversial. It has been opposed by environmentalists, indigenous peoples, ranchers and farmers. Fears about the pipeline bursting and poisoning the Ogallala aquifer and rivers, locking the U.S. into contract from an inefficient energy source and adding emissions are all reasons for suspending the permit. Only 50 people would work the pipeline if completed.
Biden was outside and socially distanced when he gave remarks from the Lincoln Monument. Snopes fact-check labeled the right-wing uproar as misleading. No superspreader events will occur with Biden as occurred with Trump.