Highly appreciated Automatic Earth commenter TAE Summary presents another one of his series “A Tale of Two..”, and if only just for the obvious effort he put into it, let’s dig in.
How do you feel about what each president has achieved? No wrong answers.
TAE Summary:
Biden is a Great President and Trump was an Awful President
Biden
- Appointed a diverse cabinet
- Signed executive orders addressing systemic racism and discrimination
- Passed the infrastructure bill to repair roads and bridges and improve internet access
- Reduced the deficit
- Led NATO in its support of Ukraine and opposition to Vladimir Putin
- Lowered the child poverty rate by increasing the tax credit for children
- Launched a program to protect earth from killer asteroids
- Officially recognized Turkish genocide of Armenians in 1915
- Sidelined the court-packing movement of the left
- Stepped up US support for Taiwan
- Announced a historic trilateral security agreement with Australia and Britain to counter Chinese hegemony
- Accelerate Covid vaccine delivery at home an abroad
- Improved the American economy by championing competition and reining in the power of big business which helped create millions of jobs
- Gave Medicare the power to negotiate drug prices and made the price of things like insulin and hearing aids cheaper
- Attacked hunger and fostered better nutrition in the US
- Funded opioid recovery programs
- Eliminated the statute of limitations for child sex abuse
- Tried to reform student loans
- Issued important cybersecurity regulations
- Chose humanity over politics when getting Brittney Griner released
Trump
- Colluded with the Russians to get elected in 2016
- Appointed unqualified family members to important positions in his administration
- Tried to ban TikTok
- Withdrew the US from the Paris Climate Accords
- Increased the deficit every year of his presidency
- Approved the Keystone Pipeline through native lands
- Disallowed transgender students from using the bathroom of their choice
- Attacked John McCain as a loser
- Ended curbs on auto emissions
- Cracked down on legal immigrants
- Impeded regulation against toxic chemicals
- Shrank the food safety net so that over 700K Americans lost their access to food stamps
- Suggested vaccines cause autism
- Accused Barack Obama of spying on his campaign
- Cut corporate taxes to the lowest level since 1939
- Oversaw the longest government shutdown in US history
- Acted as a racist and xenophobe when he implemented a travel ban from Muslim countries, blamed the Chinese for Covid, separated families at the US border, tried to build a wall between the US and Mexico and gave racist speeches
- Tried to repeal the Affordable Care Act which would have left millions without healthcare
- Inadequately responded to Covid, downplaying the dangers
- Use his influence as president to try to get Ukraine to provide damaging narratives about his political opponent
- Challenged the outcome of the 2020 election undermining democratic institutions and the public’s trust in elections which led to the events of January 6th and the deaths of 5 people
Trump was a Great President and Biden is an Awful President
Trump
- Negotiated three Arab-Israeli peace accords
- Fostered a strong economy and stock market by signing into to law the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act and other policies
- Started the Space Force
- Attempted the first Defense Department wide audit
- Cracked down on unwanted robo-calls
- Attempted to build a wall on the border with Mexico to stop illegal immigration
- Helped American farmers with billions of dollars in aid
- Tried to fix health technology by removing rules blocking the sharing of medical information
- Rescinded rules for federal contractors that protected them from sexual harassment claims
- Made it easier to prosecute financial crimes like money laundering
- Renegotiated trade deals with Mexico, Canada and China which benefitted American workers and businesses
- Appointed three Supreme Court justices and many other conservative judges to federal courts leading to pro-Constitutional decisions like the overturning of Roe
- Passed the VA MISSION Act which improved healthcare access and services for veterans
- Oversaw the defeat of the Islamic State’s territorial caliphate in Syria and Iraq
- Kept us out of war
- Signed executive orders and laws combating human trafficking
Biden
- Opened the borders to illegal immigrants
- Discharged thousands of troops for refusing the Covid vaccine
- Opposed efforts to stop biological males from competing in women’s sports
- Lied about border patrol agents whipping migrants
- Claimed that January 6th rioters were a bigger threat to democracy than Confederates in the Civil War
- Described terrorism from white supremacy as the most lethal threat to the US
- Oversaw the disastrous withdrawal of American troops for Afghanistan
- Mis-handled the response to Covid mandating vaccines and dividing the nation on the basis of vaccination status
- Supported lockdowns and other pandemic polices which damaged the supply chain and the world economy
- Supported violent protesters instead of the police during the BLM riots
- Lied about Hunter’s laptop saying it was Russain disinformation
- Stated that election reform is the new Jim Crow
- Suppressed first amendment rights by influencing policies of social media outlets
- Supported the war in Ukraine and vilified Russia as our enemy
- Blocked American energy production
- Illegally attempted to forgive student loans
- Printed massive amounts of money causing massive inflation
I have one comment: I don’t think that “Joe Biden,” in Jim Kunstler’s words, “only supported the war in Ukraine and vilified Russia as our enemy.” “Joe Biden” did a lot more to poke the bear and start the war. But I think that way. You can also decide about that.
Also just me: we were at peace when Trump left and Biden came. Now look at us.
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