To the Editor:
A recent letter to the editor took up a third of the editorial page and was full of talking points that expressed a hate for Donald Trump and a fear that he might return to complete his work toward making America great again. While Trump is not a perfect person , few of us are, and an even fewer are in Washington including the Biden family.
Replying point by point to the innuendos, half truths , unproved science and blaming others would take up another third page. It would be more productive to review the good things that Trump did in his four years compared to what has happened since.
• Inflation: Under Trump, inflation averaged 1.9 % (2016–20). In the past three years (2021–23) it averaged 5.3 % and peaked at 8.0% in 2022. It was caused by massive government spending.
• Energy: Under Trump the United States achieved energy independence and was the biggest producer of energy in the world and ended the dictatorship of OPEC on oil prices. This also kept gasoline prices low. Biden issued regulations limiting drilling and pipeline construction, resulted in doubling of gasoline prices. To control this Biden had to deplete the Strategic Oil Reserves and beg Venezuela and other hostile nations to sell us some of their oil.
• Illegal aliens: Trump enforced existing immigration laws and his wall , where it was built, kept that part of the border under control. Biden ignored the law and lit millions of so called “asylum” seekers into this country resulting in overloading our schools, upending the labor supply resulting in lower wages and also overloading our social system. Also the hoard overloaded the Border Patrol and made it easier for drugs, criminals and human traffickers to enter the country without detection and capture.
• Afghanistan: Trump tried to deal with the Taliban but they did not accept the proposal so our force of advisors and air support had to remain in order to support the democratic government in fighting the Taliban. Biden was so determined to make Trump look bad he pulled all of our forces out on a single day leaving valuable military equipment to supply the Taliban for years to come. This resulted in a massive debacle and one of the worse military disasters in our history. Probably worse than the previous retreat and defeat in Saigon.
There are many more, but these alone give me reason to vote for Trump.
The country was in good shape for three years under Trump until the Chinese released a virus that killed millions of people and stopped economic growth and people stayed home with masks while we searched for an effective vaccine. Trump was blamed for not doing enough and probably it caused his election defeat.
Al Gore predicted that the world would end by now and then retired to air condition his multi-million home with coal fired power. Thinking we can stop global warming is like thinking we can stop the hundreds of volcano’s around the world from transferring heat from the center of the earth to the surface.
August Hoernschemeyer
Owensville, Mo.
