TRUMP vs BIDEN/HARRIS SCORE CARD
11 October, 2024
Memorandum for Conservative Voters
Subject: A Voting Score Card
The purpose of this memo is to provide a compilation of fact-checked data that you can provide to your Liberal and Unaffiliated friends before they go to vote.
THE ECONOMY:
INFLATION: Trump inflation January 2021 was 1.4%..
Biden/Harris took inflation to 9.1%. How did they do this? the simplest economic formula that everyone knows is that inflation is caused by, “too much money chasing too few products.” Also. what everyone knows is that Trump sponsored a $2 trillion stimulus package for the American people May, 2020 because the nation was shut down from Covid. Few were working or getting paid.
Trump signed, what was to be the final stimulus package December, 2020: $900 billion. Everyone was getting a Covid shot which would put people back to work.
Soon after the Biden/Harris inauguration, January 2021, Biden signed the American Rescue Plan Act which contained an additional covid stimulus package of $1.9 trillion. By then everyone had a Covid shot and the economy was up and running. But because production of products throughout the world in 2020 had been reduced by businesses being shut down, there were few products to buy with the $1.9 trillion in the hands of consumers; “too much money chasing too few product.” Any first-year economics student could have predicted the 40-year high inflation rate that went to 9.1%. Middle class and lower income class families suffered from terrible decision making and still do today.
Throughout the Biden/Haris administration whenever the inflation rate has gone down a half a per centage point, there would be a White House briefing declaring that “Bidenomics is working.” Yes, the rate went down but the prices didn’t, especially for daily family essentials such as food, gas and rent.
Trump-era bottom line; paychecks grew faster than inflation. Average weekly earnings for all workers were up 8.4% after inflation.
Biden/Harris bottom line; Biden/Harris claim, “this country’s working people actually got a raise.” The truth is, they did with an overall increase of 4.7%. But with inflation at 7%, the average person lost ground in terms of real income.
CONSUMER DEBT: In 2019 consumer debt was $13.67 trillion. In 2024 it is $17.8 trillion. A 30 % increase under Biden/Harris. Bidenomics is unsuccessful economic policy and will likely continue into a Harris administration. Are you better off now than you were 4 years ago?
GAS PRICES: January, 2021 the average price for a gallon of gas across the U.S. was $2.25. Under Biden/Harris the average price peaked in June, 2022 at $5.06. An increase of 125%. That also increased the price of everything we buy that comes out of a truck. The average price today, 11 October, is $3.25.
INTEREST RATES: In January, 2021 the 30-year fixed-rate mortgage Annual Percentage Rate was 2.65%. On October 8, 2024, the national average 30-year fixed mortgage APR was 6.45%. And the highest rate in the past 3 years under Biden/Harris was 7.51% which stalled out business expansion and home buying.
IMMIGRATION: Under the Trump administration, there were 2.4 million encounters on the border. Since January 2021, there have been more than 10 million encounters. An increase of 320% by Biden/Harris. These figures do not include people who crossed the border undetected.
“Gotaways” are illegal immigrants who were detected by cameras and other means but were not apprehended. Gotaways include criminals, gang members, terrorists, human traffickers, cartel operatives and drug transporters/dealers.
From 2010 to 2020, when former presidents Barack Obama and Donald Trump held office, around 1.4 million gotaways entered the country. That is an average of about 15,000 per month. Under Biden/Harris there have been at least 1.6 million gotaways in their first 36 months, an average of over 44,000 per month. A serious threat to national security.
As his number one priority, getting control of the border, Trump initiated 472 Executive actions on immigration. During the first 364 days of the Biden/Harris administration, they took 296 executive actions to reverse or undo Trump policies on immigration.
To be more specific, a recent release from ICE reveals, “over 13,000 murderers, 15,000 rapists and 425,000 convicted criminals were allowed into America by Biden-Harris open border.” They are walking our streets today.
Violent crime in Venezuela is at its lowest mark in 22 years. Why? Venezuela cleaned out their prisons, rounded up gang members and sent them to us under Biden/Harris.
THE OIL AND GAS INDUSTRY:
In October 1973, the Organization of Arab Petroleum Exporting Countries announced that it was implementing a total oil embargo against the countries who had supported Israel at any point during the 1973 Yom Kippur War. That oil embargo shook the global energy market, reset geopolitics and reordered the global economy. Therefore, for the past 5 decades it has been U.S. policy to find a way to gain energy independence. Trump set out to do just that and in 2019 and 2020 U.S. exports of primary energy exceeded energy imports from foreign sources.
Biden/Harris immediately torpedoed the U.S. oil industry.
For a lot of complex reasons, the U.S. began importing crude oil from Russia. When Russia invaded Ukraine, Biden/Harris decided to drop Russian imports. So, Biden went hat-in-hand to Saudi Arabia which he had earlier publicly proclaimed to be a, “pariah nation.” The Saudis, who had been our Middle East friend for decades, refused to provide oil. So, Biden/Harris turned to Venezuela, a nation led by a brutal dictator Maduro where the economy has nose-dived and children are starving.
U.S. oil and gas drilling takes years of planning and financing by the oil industry. As normally happens, before leaving office Trump proposed 47 lease sales over a 5-year period. Biden/Harris cancelled all lease sales for 2024 and will only allow 3 sales in 2025-2028. Just another anti-Trump action with no thought behind it.
STRATEGIC OIL RESERVE:
The energy crisis spawned by a Middle East war 50 years ago spurred the U.S. to create a huge crude oil stockpile to shield the country from threats by unfriendly nations.
Normal levels over the years have ranged from 600,000 to 700,000 barrels. When Biden/Harris took over, the inventory was 638,000 barrels and a gallon of gas was $2.25. When gas prices reached over $5 a gallon and the 2022 midterm elections were upon us, Biden/Harris sold off more than 40 percent of the Strategic Petroleum Reserve leaving the stockpile at its lowest levels since the early 1980s. National security means nothing to Biden/Harris. What do they think the word “strategic” implies?
TAXES:
In 2017 Trump cut taxes, the economy grew, minority and female employment was the highest ever and from that tax cut the federal government revenue was the highest in history in 2019.
Biden/Harris’ economic policies are based on a simple but ridiculous philosophy of “tax and spend.” That is, continuously look for new ways to tax and to increase existing tax rates. Then look for ways to return those tax dollars to identity groups. It’s called “vote buying,” For example using billions of tax payers’ money to pay down student debt is a perfect example off vote buying to build a young-voters identity group.
Biden/Harris continuously target the wealthy for higher taxes. Rich folks do not put their extra money under their mattress. They invest it; it’s called capital. “Capital” finances capitalism, the heart and soul of America. Biden/Harris believe rich folks are prime tax targets to “pay their fair share.” The latest data available tells us the bottom half of taxpayers paid 2.3 % of all federal individual income taxes while the top 1% paid 45.8 % of all federal income and Biden/Harris say that is not fair?
Harris says, “the rich corporations need to pay more taxes.” Trump’s tax cuts slashed corporate rates from 35% to 21%. Why? In today’s globalized world, U.S. corporations were at a huge competitive disadvantage. Our 35% tax rate was the highest among the 33 other industrialized countries that make up the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) which had an average rate of 25 %.
First of all, Harris needs to understand that corporations do not pay taxes, people pay taxes. That is, a corporation’s product is the sum of many expenses; raw materials, production, wages, advertising etc. They add up all the expenses, plus a profit and that becomes the product’s selling price. A corporate tax is just another cost of producing the product and results in a higher price to the consumer which also makes it less competitive in the global market. Harris proposes to raise the corporate tax rate from 21 to 28%. Why? Because she needs tax revenue to support her new expensive give-away programs.
She is also proposing an unrealized capital gains tax. That is, you own an asset, it increases in value and you are taxed on that current value that year even though you didn’t sell it. Did she ever think that assets may increase in value one year and the next year decrease in value? This is pure nonsense.
FENTANYL DEATHS:
While Trump was getting some control over the border. American deaths from fentanyl in 2019 were 22,900. By 2022 with the Biden/Harris border wide open the deaths were 45,300, an increase of 99%. By 2023 the U.S. fentanyl deaths rose to 112,000, which eclipses every previous drug epidemic. The 112,000 averages out at about 307, mostly young Americans, dying from fentanyl overdose every single day in 2023. When have you heard either Biden or Harris mention fentanyl? What have they done about it? Absolutely nothing. There is blood on Biden/Harris’ hands.
WORLD WAR III IN THE MIDDLE EAST?
WW III is a possibility with the Israelis fighting Hamas, Hizballah, Houthi and Iran. They are in fact not four wars they are one war based on Iran’s financing, training, supplying and leading all of the above. Why is Iran capable of financing all of this mayhem?
The Trump administration renewed UN sanctions on Iran and enforced them. Iran’s foreign currency reserves fell from $128 billion in 2015 to $15 billion in 2019.
During the Trump administration, Iran’s capabilities and options were reduced and the U.S. was gaining ground in Middle East countries’ acceptance of Israel’s right to exist and prosper as a friendly neighbor. For the Biden/Harris administration it has been three plus years of appeasement towards Iran. Biden has rewarded the Ayatollah to the tune of about $100 billion; that is, massive revenue from the non-enforcement of U.S. oil sanctions over three years, a $6 billion ransom payment and a $10 billion sanctions waiver. Iran’s oil exports and sale of massive numbers of weapon systems and drones allows it to live up to their 40-year title as, “the world’s leading sponsor of terrorism.”
What is it about this simple equation that Biden/Harris cannot comprehend? The turmoil and blood-shed in the Middle East today is their doing. It didn’t have to happen. It should not have happened. Someone with an ounce of common sense when it comes to foreign policy has to lead this nation.
LEADERSHIP
Defining leadership can be a complicated task. But there are some simple pieces that can tell a huge story. Great leaders by design or sometimes it just happens to work out that they create an environment wherein there is a continuous sense of trust and respect that runs both up and down the chain of command throughout an organization no matter how large of small.
Staffers who worked for Harris before she was vice president said one consistent problem was that Harris would refuse to wade into briefing materials prepared by staff members, then berate employees when she appeared unprepared.
VP Harris currently has a staff of 47. In just 3 yeas the turnover rate has been 91.5 %. 24 of the departees, nearly half, have departed in just the last 12 months; one departee said in an interview, “VP Harris destroyed my soul.” Trust and respect?
The White House needs to be the ultimate work place where our best and brightest will gladly work long, hard days to be all they can be for America.
BIDEN/HARRIS SUMMARY
Increased prices from inflation have become the new normal.
The deterrent level of our military has been shattered; our former allies no longer trust us and our enemies do not fear us.
Many of our once-great cities are unrecognizable with homeless people living on the streets littered with human feces and drug paraphernalia.
Too many Americans are fearful to walk the streets and use public transportation because of gang violence.
It is not uncommon for someone arrested for committing a violent crime already has a rap-sheet showing 10, 20 or even 30 prior arrests without having served a day in jail.
No-cash bail, putting criminals immediately back on the street, has become all too common.
Too many prosecutors do not prosecute obvious criminals.
Too many liberal judges do not send convicted criminals to jail.
Too many communities are now controlled by violent trans-American gangs.
We are living in a failing society.
CHANGE 2025-2028
The above scorecard paints a frightening picture of what the American people have experienced under Biden/Harris. The takeaway for a voter is the pronouncement last week by VP Harris while appearing live on THE VIEW. When asked by the host, “would you have done anything differently than Biden?” She responded, “there is not a thing that comes to mind in terms of—-and I’ve been a part of—–of the decisions that have had impact.”
How does that no-change-necessary statement VP Harris link to her almost daily public assertion that her campaign is about, “a new way forward?” She has consistently avoided explaining what “new way” means.
The above scorecard has nothing to do with gender. I’m convinced that if the likes of Nikki Haley were running for president with her background of successfully leading as governor of South Carolina and her four years up-close-and-personal dealing in foreign affairs as U.S Ambassador to the United Nations, the potential future for America would look very different.
WE NEED AN INFORMED PRESIDENT
What we have observed from the Biden/Harris administration are leaders who are not only reluctant but appear incapable of standing in front of a room full of reporters and answering tough questions for an hour or so. Our conclusions from watching pre-scripted questions and pre-scripted answers being read to us from note cards is that they are generally uninformed, uncomfortable and unsure of their own capabilities. We are in fact hearing from some nameless, faceless staffer or bureaucrat. A very uncomfortable situation for we-the-people.
TRUMP OR HARRIS?
While most of you conservatives clearly recognize the VP Harris is not qualified to be president, many of you are also uncomfortable with former President Trump’s ego, communications skills and sometimes pompous attitude. What I am suggesting is that under the circumstances we need to look beyond his personality and recognize that his policies are almost without exception in the best interest of all Americans. Also recognize that he has a tireless work ethic and will not shy away from any issue, no matter how distasteful or controversial it might be.
BOTOM LINE
America is going through one of the most trying times in our history. When considering which candidate has the better chance of cleaning up this mess, I see a striking difference between the two candidates. There is every reason to believe Harris will be a disaster. Trump, on the other hand, will likely leave the country in better shape in January 2029 than he found it in January 2025. For the sake of this country, do not fail to vote just because you do not think highly of former President Trump, your country is counting on you. Again, as requested in the opening, please share this with your Democrat and Unaffiliated friends. Thank you.
Marvin L. Covault, Lt Gen US Army, retired, is the author of two books, Vision to Execution and Fix the Systems, Transform America as well as the author of a blog, WeThePeopleSpeaking.com.