(08-03-2022, 06:39 PM)BFritz21 Wrote: Ok. Replace boss with leader.
Trump was great before the Rona- 7 million new jobs, middle-class family income increased, lowest unemployment in half a century, 7 million people lifted off of food stamps, and many more.
Sounds like he was pretty damn good for the country.
In Jan 2017 (when Trump took office), unemployment was 4.7%.
In Feb 2020, right before the pandemic really hit the US, it was 3.5%
So an improvement, of 1.2%.
Was that good? Sure.
But should Trump be touted as this fantastic person with jobs over everyone else? I'd argue a couple points to say no.
Under Obama, the unemployment rate went from a high of 10% with the recession (which really occurred toward the end of Bush's admin) down to that 4.7% in Jan 2017. +5.3%
That's a much bigger improvement than Trump did.
Also, the unemployment rate is now back to 3.6%, and it's been at that number since March 2022.
So if Trump is going to get a pat on the back for getting to 3.5% from 4.7%, shouldn't the Biden administration get credit for getting the country back down to basically the same from 6.4% in Jan 2021?
What specifically are you referring to with middle-class income being increased? Are you referring to the short-term tax breaks that added ~2% additional money back? Or the tax breaks to corporations where most corporations really didn't give much of that to the employees themselves?
Because I can tell you I, someone in the middle class, only got ~2% more. That's not much when all is said and done.
But I do know business owners and the rich benefitted a lot more.
Or was there something else he did to increase income that I'm not remembering?
I'm not remembering anything with 7 million people getting off food stamps, especially not because they made way more money to not need them anymore.
I do remember back in 2020 that Trump tried to push a plan to cut food stamp eligibility, which is actually a negative.
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/trump-cutting-food-stamps-president-plan-would-kick-millions-off-food-stamps-with-proposed-tanf-change-2019-07-23/
The reality though is that SNAP participation has been steadily falling since 2010, just like the unemployment rate.
And that's tied to the economy coming back after the 2009 recession.
Was the country in complete disarray before Trump came in? I would strongly say NO.
The economy was doing well well before Trump came in, and he rode the coattails of that.
We're naturally going to see things improve over time after big things happening in the world like the Great Recession of 2009 and COVID-2019.
What I notice that Trump supporters go to is always around people getting more money.
But what they seem to always steer from is his policies on things that didn't involve money.
I think what he did with immigration was appalling.
He wanted to repeal the Affordable Care Act, when a lot of people use and depend on it. And he never proposed a replacement solution.
He wanted to make cuts to Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security in 2020. Once again, a lot of people depend on those.
He proposed cuts to Veterans.
He is averse to fuel sources other than fossil fuels, and doesn't seem to care about the environment.
He's had bad relations with other countries (specifically in Europe).
But it's clear you value the things you mentioned over the other things (and/or you don't view those negative things I mentioned as negative).
If you want to support someone who prioritizes money in the pocket over everything else and don't care how that's accomplished, that's your choice.
I personally put higher importance on many of the other things besides that and do put a lot of stake in HOW things are done and HOW one communicates and collaborates.
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