11/8/21: This week, we’ve been discussing ways that politicians are different. This is part of our effort to blow to bits the idea that they’re all the same and so voting and paying attention to government aren’t worth the time it takes to trundle off to the polls each November.
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“Enough of burning and drilling and mining our way deeper. We are digging our own graves.”
U.N. Secretary General Antonio Guterres
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Case in point: Biden vs. Trump on matters of environment – where the difference is fundamental.
The Biden “Build Back Better” plan, still lodged in Congress, like a chicken bone in a dog’s throat, proposes that $555 billion be spent on efforts to combat climate change. Whereas Loser Donald insisted climate change was a “hoax.”
The Biden administration has announced what CBS News calls a “major push” to crack down on oil and gas drillers, and order them to control the amount of methane their operations spew into the atmosphere.
Loser Don’s ideas for meeting environmental challenges included telling the same oil and gas drillers that they could pump as much methane into the atmosphere as they pleased. Other times, he burnished his “environmental protection” policies by claiming windmills caused cancer. He complained about how low-flow showerheads messed up his hair, and whined because he had to flush his low-water-use toilets ten or fifteen times to make them work.
Nearly every other leader on earth has come to understand. Climate change is going to be the issue that our children and grandchildren will have no choice but to face. The real question then is this: How do the people of this planet face the challenge with success?
Trump? He’s still trying to flush his damn toilet.
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ARE THERE any other noticeable differences? We know that Mr. Biden has added more jobs to the U.S. economy in ten months than Trump did in any of his four years. Or: all four combined.
With the jobs report out last week, preliminary figures show the economy added 531,000 jobs in October, and revised figures for September show 312,000 jobs added. That means “Sleepy Joe” can boast that since taking over (we don’t count the last 11.5 days in January when it comes to job growth, because we’re too lazy to do the required division) his policies have boosted employment by:
February: 536,000
March: 785,000
April: 269,000
May: 614,000
June: 962,000
July: 1,091,000
August: 483,000
September: 312,000
October: 531,000
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Total: 5,583,000 jobs**
Here, at this fine blog, we enjoy making this comparison regularly. We particularly enjoy pointing out that if you total up jobs added, and subtract jobs lost during Loser Donald’s time in office, and even if you credit him with all the jobs added in January 2021 – even though you had to subtract at least one, as Donald himself lost employment, you find that during his four years in the White House, Trump didn’t add any jobs at all.
By the time he was done, 2,876,000 jobs had been subtracted from the U.S. economy. And now, we’re back in black.
On the day Trump lumbered off to Mar-a-Lago for good, after one term and two impeachments, the unemployment rate stood at 6.3 percent. That compared to 4.7 percent when he took the reins of government.
MAGIC MATH AND TRUE BELIEVERS
Yes, Trump fans. At this fine blog, we understand. Presidents don’t deserve credit for all the jobs added to the economy during their times in office. We also know you’re not going to give Mr. Biden credit for any jobs added. Yet, we remember, when Trump was in control, and claimed every new job was a direct result of his job-creating magic, that you never doubted.
You were like three-year-olds, waiting for Santa to come down the chimney, sure he was coming with all the toys.
You also believed when, as a candidate, he claimed that under President Obama, 93 million Americans were left looking for work. You believed him when he said the unemployment rate when Obama left office was at least 18%, maybe as high as 42%. Then, when 183,000 jobs were added to the economy during Trump’s first month in office you believed that unemployment rate was suddenly 4.6%.
It was the same magical thinking as in play today, when against all evidence you insist Trump won the last election. (See: 10/28/21.)
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