More lies My President Told Me (part deux)

Lies My President Told me (part deux)

A brief redux on the “strongest economy ever” claims (made over 250 times)

Of course, “all things Obama” are the preferred target of these and similar Trump barbs, so let’s compare “Trump years” and “Obama years” and see if he’s justified in said jibes.

                                                2015       2016     2017      2018 

                                               Obama   Obama    Trump   Trump

Real GDP growth:                  2.9%     1.6%         2.2%      2.9%

Jobs created/month ($000s)   227        193           179         223

Inflation rate                          0.1%     1.3%        2.1%      3.9%

Real wage growth                 2.2%      1.3%        0.4%      0.6%

Mortgage rate (30 yr.)           3.9%       3.7%       4.0%      4.5%

Budget deficit                       2.4%       3.2%       3.5%      3.9%

Trade deficit                         2.7%       2.7%       2.8%      3.0%

Number uninsured (mill)      28.4                                      30.1

       From the above, it seems rather obvious that the Trump economy in 2017 & 2018 (last year for which complete data is available) was not as healthy as the Obama administration in most relevant categories, especially real wage growth. Note that real wage growth went down even as inflation, which erodes purchasing power, increased.

•   “Obama gave them [Iran] $150 billion...Got zero. He got zero out of it. He got zero. I'd love to have that money back. It’s a lot of money.” (January 14, 2020) This has been repeated in similar terms numerous times almost 100 times.

        No, just F***ing no! Trump wants Americans to believe that Barack Obama took money from the US Treasury and sent it to Iran.  He wants the Red Hat Army to think that the United States cut a check to Iran. He also always uses too high a figure when making this fallacious claim of $150 billion, for the assets involved. But this was always Iran’s money. There were billions of dollars in Iranian assets frozen in foreign banks around the world because of international sanctions over its nuclear program. The Treasury Department estimated that, once Iran fulfilled other obligations, it would have about $55 billion left. The Central Bank of Iran said the number was actually $32 billion. So, Trump also lied about the amount released (not “given”) by a factor of three as well as implying (again falsely) that we gave Iran some of “our” money.

•  “We have some of the cleanest air and cleanest water on Earth. And for our country, the air is, right now, cleaner than it's been in 40 years.” (January 2020, and at least 20 other times)

While falsely asserting that the United States had the world’s “cleanest air” and “cleanest climate” and even the “cleanest water,” Trump withdrew the United States from participation in the Paris accord to combat climate change. The reality is a bit contradictory. 

       Here are some real numbers:

 The United States actually ranks 27th in the world, according to the authoritative Environmental Performance Index, a project of Yale and Columbia universities.

 It ranks 10th for air quality — but 88th on exposure to particulate matter, an indication of the health effects from pollution — and 29th for water and sanitation.

 The U.S. is tied for first place — with nine other countries — for the quality of drinking water.

       Total environmental change can be difficult to evaluate, since variations in these metrics can be slow to develop. As for whether things have improved under Trump, it’s difficult to track with available data but, in fact, the number of unhealthy days in the United States went up from 2016 to 2017, according to government data.  The Trump administration has taken a number of actions that could reverse, or slow gains made in air and water quality since 1990.

        An EPA study just released (in January 2020) shows that after improving for the better part of a decade, air quality in the U.S. is worsening again -- and could be associated with nearly 10,000 premature deaths.

        Fine particulate matter in the air Americans breathe fell by 24 percent between 2009 and 2016. But concentrations have increased by 5.5 percent in 2017 and 2018, and premature deaths associated with exposure to the dangerous particles spiked by 9,700 in 2018, the study said.

In total, the Trump administration has either repealed or drastically weakened almost 100 previous environmental protection rules in such areas as: air pollution and emissions, drilling and extraction, animals’ protection, toxic substances and safety, and water pollution.

In summary, Trump lied to begin with and has conspired to allow conditions to deteriorate further.

      In Ohio, January of this year, at one of the “Rallies” for which we taxpayers footed travel and security bills, Trump said this:

•    “We've brought a lot of car companies into Ohio, you know that. A lot of them coming in, a lot of them have already been brought in. (the observant reader will note that the Moron in Chief actually used “a lot” three times in two sentences!) They're coming in from Japan. They're coming in from all over the world. This is where they want to be. They want to be in the United States. That's where the action is. They're all coming back.” Later in the same speech: “Ohio just had the best year, economically, in the history of your state.”    

      No, they aren’t, and it didn’t, Donald.

The first lie is blatant and proven by the numbers. No car companies have come to Ohio during Trump's presidency, and jobs in Ohio motor vehicle manufacturing have actually decreased by 2,200 since January 2017 when Trump took office, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. And yet, feeling that his average sycophant is too dumb to know better, he tosses out falsehoods, apparently feeling that Red Hats confer sheer stupidity.

       The canard of Ohio’s overall economy being the best ever is also provably in error. The Cincinnati Enquirer responded to the speech thus: "If you're looking at job growth, it wasn't Ohio's best year. December job numbers aren't out yet, but year-over-year growth through November was minuscule: 0.4% according to U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics numbers. That’s the lowest rate in the last 10 years," the Cincinnati Enquirer reported, “The state was on track for a net job loss in 2019 for the first time since the recession. The preliminary November jobs report showed 4,400 fewer private jobs than in January."

        Being a veteran, (although not a client of the Veteran’s Administration) I found this claim especially offensive:

•   “I am such a smart guy. I said this is the most brilliant thing ever and I went back to my people and I said, you know, I have an idea. If veterans are sick, they can't get the kind of service they need, or they need a certain kind of a doctor. I have an idea. It's such a great idea. You're going to go out private. You're going to pick up a doctor. You're going to get yourself fixed up. We're going to pay the bill, right? And you know what happened? And I said how, how brilliant is that? They say, sir, we've been working on that for 48 years, but we've never been able to get it approved.” 

        Ignoring the fourth grade, “special class,” grammar and phrasing, the reality is that the concept to which he refers was already enacted  on August 7, 2014, having been signed into law by Barack Obama, as “Veteran’s Choice” several years before Trump would claim that it had been impossible to do.

        Trump’s VA secretary, Robert Wilkie, also distorted the facts. Citing (and blaming) “bad leadership” at VA, Wilkie claimed that it was by his own efforts that waiting times at VA medical centers were reduced and brought new offerings of same-day mental health service. The lie?  The study cited by Wilkie covered the period from 2014 to 2017, before Wilkie became VA secretary. Same-day mental health services at VA were started during the Obama administration.

         Not only did Wilkie lie, but the numbers prove it: By 2017, the wait time at VA improved to 17.7 days, while increasing to 29.8 days for private doctors. Wait times at VA medical centers were shorter in all specialties except orthopedics. According to the study, the number of patients seen yearly in VA increased slightly between 2014 and 2017, to about 5.1 million. VA patient satisfaction also rose, according to patient surveys cited in the study.

        So, Not only does Trump falsely claim this could never have been approved until he became President -- he only signed an updated version of the (very slightly modified) law signed by President Barack Obama -- he also concocts  a story about how Veterans Choice was all his idea!

        Well, that’s all for now, kids. Never fret, there are far more lies to dissect.