Better Off

On March 6, 2020, during the early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic, Donald Trump, who was then president (sic), visited the Center for Disease Control and said a bunch of stupid shit. He said he might have “a natural ability” to understand virology at a sophisticated level because his uncle taught at MIT (where there is NOT a medical school) and said that people on a cruise ship shouldn’t come ashore because it could hurt his re-election campaign. He spent the rest of his time during the CDC photo-op attacking critics and flubbing important details. Later, he told The Washington Post’s Bob Woodward that he was trying to downplay the pandemic which he called during the same conversation, “the plague.”

Last week, four years to the day of Trump’s CDC disaster, Congresswoman Elise Stefanik asked rhetorically during a press conference, “Are you better off today than you were four years ago?” She answered it herself, saying “The answer for hardworking Americans across the country is a resounding no.”

Last week while delivering the Republican Response to the State of the Union, Alabama Senator Katie Britt asked rhetorically from a kitchen, “Are you better off today than you were three years ago?” She claimed the answer is no but the truth is, it’s yes.

America is much better off today than when Donald Trump was president (sic).

When Donald Trump left office, the unemployment rate was 6.3 percent with nearly three million jobs lost. Under President Biden, the unemployment rate at the end of February was 3.9 percent. Polls say voters believe Trump will do a better job of handling the economy, but why do they believe that? He sat on his ass lying about a pandemic while it destroyed the economy. Trump never created a booming economy. He inherited it from President Obama and he left a disaster for President Biden to inherit. Since then, President Biden has engineered an economic recovery, which President Obama also had to do with what Bush left him.

The economic growth rate under Trump fell by 3.4 percent. The only legislative achievement for Turmp was giving himself a tax cut. By the way, he raised yours.

Donald Trump added nearly $8 trillion to our debt by giving billionaires tax cuts. He also signed legislation that would increase taxes on working stiffs after he left office. He increased our trade deficit over 40 percent during his four years. He enacted new tariffs on China and never understood that American consumers pay for tariffs. He still doesn’t know this.

Despite his barking about it, illegal immigration increased 14 percent during the Trump reign of terror. What about crime? That increased too. I know Republicans don’t care about this one but the number of uninsured Americans increased by over three million.

Finally, let’s not forget that over one million people died from COVID while Donald Trump was telling the country to use bogus medications and pondered publicly about “ingesting” disinfectant. Health experts claim the number of deaths from COVID wouldn’t be so high if it wasn’t for the ineptitude of Donald Trump. People are dead because of Donald Trump.

Most Trump supporters pretend that COVID never happened, but those who do blame it for Trump’s bad numbers. But that’s the thing. Presidents are judged partly by how they handle a crisis. If it wasn’t for Iran, Jimmy Carter probably would have been re-elected and today, Ronald Reagan would mostly be remembered for being a very bad B-list actor. A major crisis came along and not only couldn’t Trump handle it, he deflected, blamed others, lied about it, and even ignored advice from his own health experts that ultimately landed him in a hospital sick…sick from what?…COVID.

Why would we re-elect a guy who failed on every front? Why would we elect a guy who can’t handle a crisis? Today, Donald Trump’s main focus was on bashing the Oscars. He’s not ready for COVID, but he thinks he has the Oscars’ number.

Donald Trump ignored COVID but wages a war on Woke.

Donald Trump spent his time in office trashing NATO and buddying up to fascist dictators. Today, thanks to President Biden, there’s a large coalition opposed to Putin’s illegal invasion of Ukraine and NATO has more members.

Donald Trump promised to get rid of Obamacare for “something better.” He failed and today, a record number of people have signed up for the Affordable Care Act. Trump promised an infrastructure plan, but instead, he gave us an insurrection plan. President Biden succeeded with an infrastructure plan.

Donald Trump is the first president (sic) to refuse a peaceful transfer of power. He tried to steal the election and mounted an insurrection against the United States in order to remain in power. Today, he’s promising to be a dictator if he’s returned to the White House.

According to his lunch buddy, Hungarian fascist Viktor Orban, Trump plans to pull all funding from Ukraine and allow Russia to take over that democratic nation.

Now, back to Katie Britt because she said something in her response that needs to be address.

During her response, Britt said, “We know that President Biden didn’t just create this border crisis. He invited it with 94 executive actions in his first 100 days. When I took office, I took a different approach. I traveled to the Del Rio sector of Texas. That’s where I spoke to a woman who shared her story with me. She had been sex trafficked by the cartels starting at the age of 12. She told me not just that she was raped every day, but how many times a day she was raped. The cartels put her on a mattress in a shoe box of a room, and they sent men through that door over and over again for hours and hours on end. We wouldn’t be okay with this happening in a third world country. This is the United States of America, and it is past time, in my opinion, that we start acting like it. President Biden’s border policies are a disgrace.“

She lied. She said we wouldn’t be okay with this happening in a third world country. But Katie’s story did happen in a third-world country.

Britt’s communications director confirmed that she was talking about Karla Jacinto Romero who testified before Congress about being forced to work in Mexican brothels from 2004 to 2008. Who was president during that time? Not Joe Biden but George W. Bush. Also, Mexican brothels are in Mexico, not in the United States. The particular brothel where Jacinto was victimized was in Guadalajara, which is in the state of Jalisco, not Tennessee or any other U.S. state.

Britt said, “This is the United States of America, and it is past time, in my opinion, that we start acting like it. President Biden’s border policies are a disgrace.” This is the United States where Jacinto’s story didn’t happen, a story that President Biden is not responsible for. Why didn’t she also blame President Biden for 9/11, Pearl Harbor, Pauly Shore, Jersey Shore, Snooki, the WAP song, and the Kars-4-Kids jingle (which started in 1999)?

These goons claim human trafficking is happening at our border but the fact is, most human trafficking prosecutions generally involve legal border crossings, visa fraud, and travel into the United States on airplanes.

In an interview with CNN, Jacinto criticized Katie Britt for using her story in a misleading way. She said “I hardly ever cooperate with politicians, because it seems to me that they only want an image. They only want a photo — and that to me is not fair.” She said she was not trafficked by Mexican drug cartels into the United States but instead, as she had testified to Congress, was lured in the Mexican sex trade by a pimp.

Republicans lie while smiling and wearing a crucifix in a kitchen. And I’ll bet that’s not even Katie’s real kitchen.

Music note: I listened to Local H.

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