The so-called “debate” between Biden and Trump had the smallest viewing audience for a presidential debate since 2004. Still, it gave Trump an opportunity to recount many of his favorite illusions.
For example, Trump continues to believe China pays the tariffs he imposed on Chinese exports to the United States. That is not how tariffs work. China’s government and companies in China do not pay the tariffs. Tariffs are a tax on imports, paid by U.S. firms for the goods they import. Importers often pass the costs of tariffs – $80 billion on Chinese goods last year – to their customers, manufacturers and consumers in the United States by raising their prices and adding to inflation.
Trump is still repeating his boast about the economy under his leadership. “We had the greatest economy in the history of our country, and we have never done so well. Everybody was amazed by it.” Economists generally measure the economy’s health by measuring the growth in GDP, the gross domestic product, and adjust it for inflation. Under Trump, the growth was a modest 3 percent in 2018. An analysis of government data dating back to 1930 by FactCheck.org found the economy grew at a faster annual rate 48 times and under every president before and after Trump except under Obama and Hoover. In 1997, 1998, and 1999, GDP grew 4.5 percent, 4.5 percent, and 4.7 percent, respectively. Yet even that period paled in comparison with the 1950s and 60s; growth between 1962 and 1966 ranged from 4.4 percent to 6.6 percent.
Trump has claimed that the U.S. was “energy independent” when he was president, suggesting that is no longer the case under Biden. That’s not true. The U.S. is still producing record amounts of oil. According to data from the U.S. Energy Information Administration, during Biden’s presidency, the U.S. exported more energy, including petroleum, than it imported, and produced more energy than it consumed.
Trump made the statement that Biden “wants to raise your taxes by four times.” Hardly. Biden’s tax plan would raise the top individual income tax rate for taxable incomes over $400,000 from 37 percent under current law to the pre-Trump tax cut level of 39.6 percent. It would raise the corporate tax rate from 21 percent to 28 percent and create a minimum tax on corporations that report profits of more than $100 million. Before Trump’s tax cut, the corporate tax rate was 35 percent.
Trump claims “I gave you the largest tax cut in history.” Not true. Trump’s tax cut amounted to less than one percent of the gross domestic product, far less than Reagan’s tax cut in 1981, which was 2.89 percent of GDP. Actually, Trump’s tax cut is the eighth largest in the past century, and smaller than two tax cuts passed under Barack Obama. Moreover, Trump’s tax cut was heavily tilted toward the wealthy and corporations.
Trump declared Biden is “destroying Medicare because all of these people are coming in. They’re putting them on Medicare. They’re putting them on Social Security. They’re going to destroy Social Security. This man is going to single-handedly destroy Social Security.” Quite the opposite. Undocumented immigrants improve the health of Social Security and Medicare by paying payroll taxes for benefits they will never receive. Social Security payments made by undocumented immigrants is now about $27 billion; for Medicare, it’s about $6 billion.
During the debate, Trump and Biden traded barbs over who is considered the worst president. “He’s without question the worst president, the worst president in the history of our country,” Trump said. Biden later responded, “And by the way, worst president in history, 159 presidential scholars voted him the worst president in the history of the United States of America.”
Biden’s statement is true, according to the Presidential Greatness Project, managed by professors at the University of Houston and Coastal Carolina University. They conducted an online survey in November and December 2023 to create a ranking of “Presidential Greatness.” Five hundred and twenty-five respondents were invited to participate, including current and recent members of the Presidents & Executive Politics Section of the American Political Science Association, which is the foremost organization of social science experts in presidential politics, as well as scholars who had recently published peer-reviewed academic research in key related scholarly journals or academic presses. Trump was rated lowest by this group, while Abraham Lincoln was rated as the greatest president. President Biden ranked as the 14th greatest out of all presidents; former President Obama was ranked seventh.
Mark Berg is a community activist in Adams County and a proud Liberal. His email address is MABerg175@Comcast.net.
Biden and his “cabinet” have let America get invaded by illegal aliens, including criminals, and Chinese spies. How about the horrific effects of fentanyl? And no one has a clue where most of these illegals are hiding. You are a confirmed Bidenite and nothing I say, or any other conservative will change your mind.
If Republicans were truly concerned about the border, they’d have passed the border bill they had a big say in developing. Trump, however, told them not to pass it. Why? So he could continue to campaign on the issue. Looking up the history of fentanyl just now, seems it’s been around for quite some time. One headline that popped up said the first big illegal wave (of it) came to the US in 2005/2006 and “now it has completely invaded the illegal drug market.” Interestingly enough, that article was written in 2018. Who was President then and why didn’t he… Read more »
Well said. The one thing Trump is superb at is being a salesman – saying what people want to hear. It need not be true if it gets the sale. He wrote, “The Art of the Deal,” and is a living example of how it can work. In real life, his presidency wasn’t a good one. Anyone who looks at actual data and results can see that, but most of Trump’s followers prefer to just read/hear the sound bites and go with those as fact – no substance needed. In 2016, after winning Nevada’s caucuses Trump said (a literal quote),… Read more »