Biden’s best and worst
Mandates are needed
Regarding “The 10 best things Biden did in 2021” and “The 10 worst things Biden did in 2021,” (Dec. 2): Marc Thiessen should be lauded for his two pieces regarding President Biden’s decisions this past year. Mr. Thiessen is modeling “the loyal opposition,” a great democratic tradition. I do, however, take issue with one of his criticisms — mandatory vaccinations. While Mr. Thiessen believes that Biden’s executive order for all major employers to require their employees to get COVID vaccinations or be tested regularly was a mistake, I must politely disagree. When I was 7, the Colorado Springs School District was chosen to be a field test for the new polio vaccine developed by Dr. Jonas Salk. I volunteered, and I was adamant with my parents that I wanted to get the vaccine. If the stout, brave, patriotic anti-vaxxers don’t have the courage of a 7-year-old, why do we want to allow them to fly airliners, heal the sick, or, worse, govern our country?
James A. Babb, Friendswood
Marc Thiessen’s arm must be sore from patting himself on the back, complimenting himself for saying something nice about Biden. He mentions airstrikes against Iranian proxy forces, but drags in the idea that it was a Trump policy to take action against forces that attempt to kill U.S. personnel. This was nowhere near a new idea by the former president. The United States has a long history of not tolerating attacks on its personnel. The idea that this is a sudden revelation by Trump is ridiculous.
Emily Murphy, Kingwood
Marc Thiessen repeats the characterization of the exit from Afghanistan as a disaster. No, Mr. Thiessen, it was not. The United States got thousands of soldiers and citizens out of a landlocked country in about 10 days, with a loss of only 13 U.S. service members. We even got many Afghan friends out. That was a pretty successful evacuation. We should have gotten out many years ago, but President Biden was the one who finally did it. Thanks, Mr. President.
Georg Christensen
Of the supposed 10 best things Biden accomplished in 2021, only the $1.2 trillion bipartisan infrastructure bill would have gotten any polling numbers with the American public as a Biden accomplishment.
But it obviously must not have been very important to even the Democratic Party because Speaker Pelosi initially couldn’t get it passed or even bring it to the House floor for a vote because some of her party members didn’t think it was important enough. No, instead those members held the bill hostage in order to try to get Biden’s Build Back Better bill passed along with that infrastructure bill.
What makes things worse for Biden is in some instances the Biden administration will not admit it made any mistakes or in other instances it’s doubling down and making no efforts to correct mistakes. The biggest problem is inflation, so what does Joe Biden do? He proposes more spending with his Build Back Better bill.
Robert M. Louie, Houston
Marc Thiessen fell far short of adequately recognizing the accomplishments of the Biden administration in 2021. Just ask any lower- or middle-income Americans what was most important to them. It was the $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan that passed Congress in March. Among many vital features, it authorized 160 million stimulus payments of $1,400 per person. Surely it ranked as the No. 1 or No. 2 most important thing that Biden has accomplished in less than 12 months. But it was totally ignored by Thiessen.
Ray Lawrence, Houston