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To the editor:
I read last week's letter titled "Republican leaders historically follow Democratic failure" and found the arguments so baseless I felt compelled to respond. Like our current president, the writer failed to provide facts needed to substantiate his argument. So let’s start with some facts.
Here are some significant accomplishments Biden completed during his term:
• Released a National Strategy for the COVID-19 Response to vaccinate the nation and stood up the largest free vaccination program in the country's history.
-- 230 million Americans are now vaccinated, up from 3.5 million under.
• Economy added 16.6 million jobs, and Gross Domestic Product grew 3.2%.
-- The stock market reached record highs and the annual inflation rate for 2024-2025 released in Feb 25 was 2.9%.
• Bipartisan Infrastructure Law — once-in-a-generation investment in America's infrastructure and competitiveness.
-- Ground has been broken on projects to rebuild our roads and bridges, upgrade transit and rail, modernize ports and airports, deliver clean and safe water, clean up legacy pollution, expand access to high-speed internet, lower energy costs, and build a clean energy economy.
– Every reader of this paper needs to acknowledge that rebuilding our infrastructure was a key promise in Trump first presidential campaign and he failed to act on it.
Success is often measured based on growth in GDP. Since the writer implied that all prior Democratic presidencies were failures let me share MORE FACTS. GDP growth under Clinton was 4%, G. W. Bush 2.4%, Obama 2.3 %, Trump 2.3% and Biden 3.2%. So Trump comes in dead last tied with Obama ... which does not support the argument made of Democratic failure/ Trump success.
In regard to the court cases, the contention that the DOJ spent billions pursing Trump seems to be based on emotion and not fact. Regardless, U.S. trial judges are impartial participants who make decision based on U.S. Law and rules of evidence. The contention that the judges were democratic leaning is baseless. Trump's lawyers submitted motions to have cases dismissed based on lack of evidence but were denied based on proof provided by the prosecution. The only reason Trump avoided further trials is his ability to manipulate the legal system and delay, delay delay.
Trump's greatest skills are manipulation of the court system and threats/intimidation. No other president in modern history has spent more time in the courtroom defending his failed businesses defrauding investors, contractors, etc. His mentor Roy Cohn taught him legal maneuvering going back to Trump's early career. Trump's statement about cutting government waste is a fraud as we are wasting more and more of our taxpayer dollars in lawyer fees. Even in his first 60 days Trump is bogged down in lawsuits as he tries to push forward illegal policies at a breakneck rate.
Not a fan of the media period but since firings/layoff of liberal media were raised let's talk facts, AGAIN. Mr. Bill O'Reilly, who was referenced by the writer, was fired by FOX news; 2) FOX News was sued over its 2021 election lies and settled out of court for $787 million and 3) as a result, FOX fired Tucker Carlson who was the leader in spreading conspiracies/lies. So let's agree that right-wing media are no angels either.
As far as the contention that Trump knows how to staff appointments -- let's get real. Trump's key appointments were part of back-door brokering. Musk bought his position by donating $300 million to Trump campaign and recently threw in another $100 million. Elon Musk is solely interested in a power grab. Musk also meddled in Germany's recent election supporting the far right "Alternative for Germany" party. The German people were smart enough to reject the far right party/Elon Musk.
Elon Musk was not elected, hasn't been vetted by the FBI/confirmed by Congress, and has so many conflicts of interest due to current government contracts he should not have been given the unbridled power he currently holds. The fact that this is being allowed to happen is frightening!!!
The past 60 days have been absolute chaos. It's deja vu all over. Cannot even watch the news. Am completely in favor of reducing the federal workforce, streamlining, eliminating waste and finally cracking down/reducing fraud -- yet the current approach is a disaster. With the advent of AI am confident analytic tools can be developed to find the best way for this reduction. Taking a "chainsaw" to the federal workforce and then joking about it is not the way to do this ... and Musk should not be in charge.
I have never been more worried about this country's future. And am saddened as so many people seem to rely on those 2-minute sound bites/scrolling banner bars to form their opinion. We are an intelligent nation but WE AS A PEOPLE need to do our own research. It can be very eye opening. Then WE THE PEOPLE need to email our senators/congressmen and get them to act because WE HIRED THEM.
If not then Trump 2.0 will be another dismal failure.
Leah Davis
Cape Coral