About that good work

In deriding “belligerent” antiTrump liberals, Doug Morris used the conservative talking point that we hate Trump because of the good job he is doing. Actually, we are grateful that he has not already destroyed our economy because of his policies, but then he still has 2 ½ years to rectify that.

During the election cycle Trump promised to pay off the U.S. debt within eight years or at least pay it way down. With his tax cut and increased spending, we will instead see added debt of about $1 trillion per year. His tax cut was supposed to be a great boon to U.S. citizens, but using a Trump tax calculator, one will find that the lowest 50 percent of income-earners are forecast to not receive a tax cut, with some actually paying higher taxes. It seems the only boon was to the wealthy and corporations.

Trump likes to tout that “his” economy is performing better than any U.S. economy in history. The second quarter of 2018 did show a GDP growth rate of 4.1 percent (still lower than many quarterly GDPs during Obama) but Forbes explained the reason for that. Because of the impending Trump tariff war, companies were buying all the raw materials and exporting all the goods they could, which added to the growth rate. Growth rates of around 3 percent are now forecast for the rest of the year with a slowdown to less than 2.5 percent in 2019. Trump also touts wage growth during his time, but the Bureau of Labor Statistics reports that from June 2017 to June 2018 real (adjusted for inflation) average hourly wages actually fell by 0.2 percent.

The U.S. now has a foreign policy based on bullying, and administration policies that increase debt and inflation, create even higher wage inequality, increase contamination of our environment, create hate and division among our citizens, etc. If these are examples of good work from our president, then God help us. Semper fi.

KENNETH R. WEBER Bella Vista