In his Feb. 17 letter to the editor, Phil Beardsley credits Trump with a number of successes and asks for a list of “positive items the Democrats have ever done for the country in the last 11 years.” In fact, economically, one can say only that the Trump Slowdown has not succeeded in reversing the Obama Recovery from the Bush Recession. The improvements in employment, unemployment, and income per capita that he cites date from 2010, and the slowdowns from 2017.
The “thousands on welfare and food stamps” Obama inherited from the Bush Recession have steadily declined in number since 2012 for welfare, and the number of food-stamp recipients rose slightly last year.
Trump cancelled the Trans-Pacific Partnership, designed to outflank China in southeast Asia, and now China’s influence is gaining as our trading partners seek agreements elsewhere. The only agreement that has been finalized is the new NAFTA, and only after the Democrats forced improvements.
The number of illegals entering the U.S. has been falling since 2009, and the “better border security” Beardsley cites has contributed much to the decline of our reputation in the world.
In 2017 Trump inherited a country that was prosperous at home and respected abroad. At home he has not succeeded in ruining the prosperity, but abroad he has turned us into a laughingstock.
Robert Scott Gassler
Everett
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