He Has Really Cost Us

 

We all want America to win. We want solid jobs, wages that actually keep up with groceries, and towns that aren’t hollowed out while Wall Street throws a party.  If you listen to Donald Trump, he fixed it all overnight. The story goes: our country was completely in the toilet; he stepped in, waved a magic wand, and built the "greatest economy in the history of the world." He will tell you that he was the only one who could do this.   It’s a great story, but is it true? If a mechanic tells you your truck is good as new when he just slapped fresh paint over a cracked engine block, you aren’t doing yourself any favors by believing him.  At some point, you must stop listening to the stories and look at the receipts. Not the cable news spin, not the campaign rallies, just the cold, hard numbers from our own government.

 

Here are just three examples of what really went down.

Myth 1: "I Built the Whole Economy from Scratch"

The Spin: Everything before 2017 was a total disaster until Trump showed up.

 

The Truth: He was handed a running car with a full tank of gas.

Think about a football team that drives the ball 90 yards down the field. A new running back subs in at the 2-yard line and punches it across. Does that running back get to brag that he won the game all by himself?

When the 2008 crash hit under George W. Bush, unemployment shot through the roof, peaking at 10% under Obama. But by the time Trump took the oath of office in January 2017, unemployment was already down to 4.7%. The country had added jobs for 76 straight months. In fact, in Obama’s last three years, the U.S. added about 215,000 jobs every single month. In Trump’s first three years (before anyone ever heard of COVID), it added about 180,000 jobs a month.

Did the economy keep growing? Yep. Did unemployment drop to 3.5%? It sure did. But the car was already cruising at 60 mph on the highway when he got behind the wheel. Stepping on the gas pedal isn’t the same as building the engine.

 

Myth 2: "The Tax Cuts Paid for Themselves"

The Spin: Handing giant tax cuts to corporations and billionaires sparked so much business that the government made all its money back.

 

The Truth: It maxed out the national credit card during good times. Ask any working guy: what do you do when times are good, and overtime is rolling in? You pay off the credit card, pay down the truck loan, and put a little in savings for a rainy day.

What did Washington do in 2017? The exact opposite.

They took out a massive second mortgage on the country. The 2017 tax bill permanently cut the corporate tax rate from 35% down to 21%. Everyday working folks got a modest, temporary tax cut set to expire, while the big boys got permanent cuts.  And did it "pay for itself"? Not even close. Corporate tax revenues dropped by a third. The annual federal deficit—the amount we overspend every single year—shot up from 665 billion USD to nearly 1 trillion USD in 2019 alone.

Any guy can act like a high roller on Saturday night if he puts the whole bar tab on a credit card he never plans to pay off. Bragging about a hot economy when you borrow nearly 8 trillion dollars over four years to fund it isn't business genius. It’s just leaving our kids to pay the bill.

 

Myth 3: "China Paid for the Tariffs"

The Spin: Billions of dollars poured into the U.S. Treasury straight out of Beijing's pockets.

 

The Truth: You paid for it at the cash register. China cheats on trade. Everyone knows it, and we need to deal with it. But saying China paid our tariffs is an outright lie. China doesn't cut a check to the U.S. Treasury. A tariff is a customs tax paid at our own docks by the American company importing the goods. If a machine shop in Ohio must pay 25% extra to bring in steel parts, they don’t just eat that loss. They raise prices on the tools and equipment they sell to you.

Worse yet, China hit back by refusing to buy American soybeans and pork. American family farms started going belly up. So, what did the administration do? They used 28 billion dollars of your taxpayer money to send bailout checks to farmers so they wouldn't revolt before election day.

Think about that: Washington taxed your purchases at the store, hurt American farmers' export markets, and then used your tax money to paper over the damage. That’s not winning a trade war. That’s getting your pocket picked twice.

 

Myth 4: "America First Means Protecting All Americans"

The Spin: He’ll stand up and defend every inch of American soil, no matter what.

 

The Reality: If you live in a state he doesn't like, you’re expendable.

If you want to know what "America First" really means when the cameras are rolling, just look at what happened on stage in Nebraska. While talking about higher gas prices and war with Iran, Trump brushed off the idea of an enemy attack on our own country. He told the crowd: "They can take out a city. Let them take, let them take out Los Angeles, let them take out San Diego. This is a very small price to pay."  Millions of regular, hard-working Americans live in San Diego and Los Angeles. That’s home to thousands of active-duty Navy sailors, Marines at Camp Pendleton, veterans, factory workers, and everyday families. But because California didn't vote for him, he tells a rally that an enemy nation nuking two American cities is just "a very small price to pay."   His spokespeople are already running around calling it "media spin." But there’s no spinning those words. A commander-in-chief's number one job—the oath he takes—is to protect every single American citizen, whether they voted for him or not. When a leader acts like our own cities and our own service members are collateral damage, that’s not "America First." That’s "Me First," and everyone else is on their own.

 

The Bottom Line

Anybody who’s ever hired a bad contractor knows how this game works.  The guy talks a massive game. He promises you top-shelf work on the cheap. He slaps a glossy coat of paint over rotten drywall, hands you a bill twice the estimate, and walks off bragging about the incredible job he did. A year later, the ceiling starts leaking, and you’re the one stuck paying out of pocket to fix the structural mess he left behind.

 

That’s what the "America First" economy is. A shiny coat of paint over an economy that was already rolling, paid for by running up the biggest peacetime debt in American history. What saddens me most is that we let him do it twice. We now have so much debt that it will not be paid for in my grandchildren's lifetime. That debt will make it hard to build a country that really puts “Americans First,” and not billionaires and corporations like it does now.

 

These are just a few examples; there are many more, but it’s time to stop listening to the sales pitch and start inspecting the foundation. Real strength isn’t bragging about what you borrowed; it’s owning up to what you actually built. Now tell me again, why I should vote for a Republican.