Debt
According to government data source “US Revenues and Expenses 1789-FY25” on , facts, not emotion, under the 8 years of president G.W. Bush, deficit spending totaled over $2 trillion.
Under 8 years of president Obama, this increased to $7.2 trillion, over 3 times as much, and far more than all annual deficits put together since 1789 ($5.3 trillion).
Under 4 years of President Trump, the annual deficits totaled $3.5 trillion. While spending did not slow, revenues increased due to Mr. Trump’s policies. This took place despite tax cuts.
In less than 3 months on office, Mr. Biden has signed off on a $1.9 trillion “COVID relief” bill that largely has nothing to do with the disease (see below for an example). To put this in perspective, that amount is half of the spending that took place in Mr. Obama’s last full year in office. It will of course factor greatly into annual budget deficits and our overall debt. Can he top Mr. Obama’s record? I have no doubt.
It’s worth noting the last time there was a budget surplus was from 1998-2001, spanning Mr. Clinton’s second term to Mr. G.W. Bush’s first term. Why did this happen? At that point, true Republicans controlled Congress and for 4 years we as a nation lived within our means.
Division
To see the divisive polices of Mr. Biden (again, facts not emotion), it does not take much effort. Start with job qualifications for upper level positions. Want to be VP? OK, you must be black and female. He said it, not me. How about Transportation Secretary? No need for actual transportation planning or engineering abilities, just being a homosexual mayor from a mid-sized town checks the box. This is further evidenced by bills Mr. Biden supports such as the recently passed $1.9 trillion “COVID relief” package that contains non-COVID provisions such as “racial justice” for black farmers. Again, using facts and data not emotion, one can easily learn that the USDA settled a discrimination suit (Pigford v. Glickman) in 1999 to the tune of over $2 billion as of 2020. In 2010 alone, Congress allocated over $1 billion for new cases. It’s been illegal for racial discrimination by the government for decades. This spending of course becomes a viscous circle of ever-increasing debt, see above. It also breeds dependence upon the federal government.
Guns
The latest round of anti-gun rights sentiment is being spurred on by shootings such as the one in Colorado, where a police officer bravely gave his life protecting others. What you may not know is Colorado already has progressive Mr. Biden’s touted universal background check, and magazine capacity limits. Laws such as these do not deter gun criminals, who very often acquire their guns in a manner outside of any background check- such as theft. Saying emotional things such as banning “assault weapons” ignores the fact actual assault weapons are used only by military and police, and semi-automatic rifles account for very few shootings annually. One such shooting in 2019 involved the use of one lawfully-possessed rifle to stop a mass shooter exiting a church in Texas. Mr. Biden had later commented that allowing lawfully-carried guns in churches was “irrational”, yet just 3 months later a lawfully-carried gun at a Texas church stopped a gun criminal that had already shot 2 people.
Emotion
In October last year, there was an excellent insight into the progressive mindset when the magazine Slate asked “How should the brothers who own CUP Foods pay for what happened next?” CUP Foods is the family-owned business in Minneapolis where convicted felon and drug user George Floyd passed a counterfeit bill before being stopped by city police. Floyd later died and the police officers that stopped him were tried for various crimes. Those that own a business realize that you cannot logically operate on worthless counterfeit money (unless of course like the federal government you can print your own). Progressives illogically think stores should do so. Perhaps they can pay employees with counterfeit money as well.
So what is the solution? Sadly there is none. You can neither have a rational debate with an irrational person nor a logical debate with an illogical person. Once enough people lose the ability to critically think and instead decide via sound bite or emotion, such as electing candidates, it will send the nation into an unrecoverable decline absent divine intervention.
Paul Henry