We’re waiting
The tone of President Trump’s recent State of the Union address appeared somewhat cocky, probably because of his immanent impeachment trial acquittal. But he again wrongly insisted on having rescued Obama’s failing economy and job market in 2017, plus an out-of-control crime wave.
These false assertions were neither errors nor exaggerations, they were outright lies. But how does Trump get by with telling such whoppers? Because he is supremely confident that few of his followers will bother to check his “alternative facts.” And so far, he has been right.
Fact-checking organizations estimate Trump’s “Pinocchio rating” for murdering the truth to be about 66%-72%. And most of his outlandish claims are not just little white ones either. Many fall in the “pants-on-fire” category.
Trump claims the economy was abysmal during the Obama years and the crime rate was out of control. He then claims to have personally solved both problems. But here are the facts. And please, do check them out.
In 2009 President Obama inherited the worst economy since the Great Depression from George W. Bush and an essentially paralyzed stock market. Eight years later he left Donald Trump a booming stock market, a steadily climbing GDP and a shrinking unemployment rate. His remedies for a failing economy included a bailout for General Motors, whose failure could have had a ripple effect on the entire U.S., economy and the broader employment rate. And, by the way, the bailout money has been repaid with interest.
After addressing and resolving several other economic situations in his first term, Obama campaigned vigorously and won reelection with a healthy 5% majority in 2012.
The economy had begun an upward climb in the first quarter of that year and in the third quarter employment also turned positive. Both indexes maintained a steady improvement for four years under Obama followed by three years under Trump.
Although the dates and numbers indicate that this recovery began under Obama, Donald Trump unashamedly takes the credit. But the record shows the recovery had been well underway four years before he took office in 2017. Trump merely inherited a restored healthy economy from Obama. And it continues to perform well despite Trump’s ill-conceived manipulation of the tariff laws.
Our president also contends that the US crime rate was out of control when he took office and blames it on illegal aliens. Again, let’s look at the facts. Although we have recently experienced large increases in population growth, much of it due to immigration, the overall rates for most types of crime have been steadily decreasing over the same period.
Some violent crimes are down by almost half. And in the two states with the largest non-white immigrant populations, California and Texas, the arrest and incarceration rates for Hispanic males are only about half that for native-born Caucasians.
Few realists today expect politicians to fulfill their campaign promises. But to reassure potential voters who feared losing their health insurance, Trump promised his first order of business would be to repeal Obamacare and replace it with a new and superior plan covering everyone.
While attempts to have Obamacare declared unconstitutional have failed, to my knowledge no replacement plan has ever even been mentioned by Donald Trump, much less submitted to Congress. We’re waiting, Mr. Prez.
George B. Reed Jr., who lives in Rossville, can be reached by email at reed1600@ bellsouth.net.