Jan 30, 2019 3 min read

Dave Ball states in his op-ed (Jan. 27) that President Trump is showing results with a robust economy. True, but one can reasonably assume the economy was doing well prior to Trump. The trajectory is continuing, for now.

Many economists agree that there will be an economic downturn based on interest rates continuing to rise, trade tariffs and a concern that earnings growth may have peaked. Some even predict a recession by 2020.

Ball cites that the tax cuts are working, but for whom? In 2019, taxpayers earning $25,000 will average a tax cut of 0.3 percent; between $50,000 and $87,000, 1.4 percent; $310,000 and $750,000, about 3.5 percent; more than $750,000, 2.2 percent. The numbers speak for themselves, and these tax cuts are becoming increasingly unpopular with the public.

The lasting legacy of the tax cuts will most certainly be an exploding national debt and a drag on the economy. Trump promised he would eliminate the debt in eight years. Instead, he signed a bill increasing the debt ceiling and the debt exceeded $20 trillion for the first time in history. By March, the debt is estimated to increase to $22 trillion. His proposed budgets would increase the debt to $25 trillion over four years. So much for fiscal responsibility.

Ball employs the Republicans’ new scary words: “socialist,” “socialism,” “more left,” “way left,” “sharp leftward,” “further left,” “radical left,” and “radical leftists.” Newly elected Democratic representatives are referred to as “brash.” (My two favorite definitions from Merriam-Webster: “full of fresh vitality” and “aggressively self-assertive.”) I don’t personally know the three congresswomen mentioned, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Ilhan Omar, and Rashida Tlaib. I certainly don’t know Ocasio-Cortez well enough to call her Sandy, but I bet all three would proudly wear the label of “brash”

As I read that the new representatives are “bereft of civility,” I was glad that I did not have coffee in my mouth at the time. The Republican Party’s president has made fun of a disabled journalist, repeatedly calling a woman of Native American descent Pocahontas, besmirched the heroism of POW and Sen. John McCain, and said, “But you also had people that were very fine people, on both sides,” when one side was made up of white supremacists and neo-Nazis. The list goes on. It’s a problem when such incivility comes from the president of the United States, yet Republicans bristle when this concern is brought up. There is complicity in silence.

Finally, Ball’s concerns about Nancy Pelosi are unwarranted. She wanted to end Trump’s disastrous government shutdown and not fund a border wall. Trump shut down the government because he wanted funding for a wall. We all know how that turned out. I’ll stick with the Democratic Party.

Sharon Laffey

Washington County Democratic Committee recording secretary and Democratic committeewoman, Buffalo Township