I have seen the media reports on how a majority of voters disapprove of the performance of Joe Biden after 13 months in office. Obviously this is expected of Republicans and right-wing media. But I am confused about the opinions of independents (like me), or even some Democrats. Poor Biden has approval numbers that mirror the former president. Not good.
My Republican friends insist Biden is destroying the country. They blame him for rising inflation. Of course, inflation started to rise before he took office due to the pandemic, supply problems, and rising wages (due to shortages of workers). None of the above seem to be problems Biden started, but he does need to work through them. If the former president was in office, would he have performed better on the pandemic, or supply issues, or rising wages? Donald Trump failed in the pandemic, which got him fired. He aggravated the supply issues by instituting tariffs, and he contributed to the worker shortage by his mishandling of the pandemic. But he did build a few miles of border wall, which Mexico did not pay for.
Some Republicans in California claim that the Trump policies were working wonderfully. Maybe a few even benefited from his tax cut, which is still with us. I do wonder how they avoided the tax implications of the SALT provisions in his tax bill. Most property owners pay significantly more state and local (property) taxes above the $10,000 deduction limitation. Trump declared “Infrastructure Week” throughout his presidency, but accomplished nothing. Biden got a bipartisan infrastructure bill passed. Biden also got health care legislation passed, which has led to higher employment, a surging economy, and amelioration of the pandemic problems. I shudder to think of what shape we would be in if Trump had won. Which, despite his false claims, he did not.
Of course, if Trump had won there would have been no Jan. 6 insurrection. And he might have helped his buddy Vladimir Putin pull off his power grab in Ukraine without interference. And we would not have to wear masks, or get vaccinated, to go to work. That is, until we got sick enough to go to the ER. I am still struggling to find other important things in life that we would be experiencing if Trump had won. The only thing I can think of is that it would not be necessary for MAGA Republicans to take over the election machinery in this country. And the election workers would be able to do their important jobs without being vilified.
Thomas Oatway
Valencia
