America has a choice. We have to make a decision. But part of the problem is that many Americans are deeply misinformed and are making that decision based on missing or flatly wrong facts.
For example, Senator Tim Scott was on CNN today and refused to admit and condemn lies about election fraud.
During his appearance on CNN's "State of the Union," the Donald Trump advocate was pressed by the CNN host to say if he will agree with the election results if the former president loses and whether he would urge Trump to follow suit.
That led to an exchange where the GOP lawmaker refused to stop talking as she tried to get him to stick to answering her questions.
'You think it's okay to spread false rumors about fraud and undermine the integrity of the election regardless of what happens?" Bash asked.
"Dana, the liberal media has done a better job of spreading misinformation ––," he replied which led Bash to roll her eyes and fire back, "Oh come on senator."
"That's true," he insisted. "Here's the fact: we're not seeing the coverage of two assassination attempts on CNN –"
We did wall-to-wall coverage!" the exasperated Bash interjected.
"We talk about Kamala Harris calling Donald Trump a fascist," Scott continued to which Bash once again interrupted with, "John Kelly called him a fascist, his former chief of staff."
"Wouldn't you in Kamala Harris' chief of staff called her a fascist?' the now bemused Bash asked. "And Donald Trump has called him one too."
She later added, "I want to allow you to make your point like I just did but I can't let go of the fact that you are saying it is the media spreading claims. It is not true. It is Donald Trump who is saying things."
Facts matter. Truth matters. The media mostly tries to tell the truth, but again, many Americans are not listening to them. They believe the media is biased, that it is the “enemy of the people.”
But let’s suppose we could reach them with some actual facts, what might happen?
Here’s a very interesting video where someone on the left (David Pakman) simply tells the truth to a Trump support and he listens to it.
Normally this is not the case. Normally Trump supporters are as uninformed as this person, but they are also stubbornly addicted to Misinformation. You can tell them the truth, but they usually just. won’t. believe. it.
But what if they did listen?
When discussing Harris v Trump with our fellow Americans it’s easy to become wrapped up in some of the insane things that Trump tends to say. His wanting to put Liz Cheney before a firing squad for something or the other. His calling his opponents the “Enemy Within” and calling for them to be “dealt with by the Military.” His saying that if he lost it would be a “bloodbath.” His calling those who support Kamala Harris “absolute garbage” or when he says “we need to shoot through the fake news”, that he “never should have left the White House” so on and so forth.
Tim Scott argues that these are just distractions and that the GOP has a massive advantage if we only “focus on the issues” which he claims are Crime, Inflation and the Economy.
But if you really do focus on exactly those issues — would the actual facts turn out the way that Scott thinks it would?
I doubt it. This is the final argument that should be made.
Inflation is Down (to 2.3%)
The Commerce Department reported that prices rose just 2.1% in September from a year earlier, down from a 2.3% rise in August. That is barely above the Fed's 2% inflation target and in line with readings in 2018, well before prices began surging after the pandemic recession.
Yet some signs of inflation pressures remained. Excluding volatile food and energy costs, so-called core prices rose 2.7% in September from a year earlier for the third straight month. On a monthly basis, core prices rose 0.3% from August to September, up from 0.2% from July to August. The increase in the core rate is higher than the Fed would prefer.
Still, for the past six months, core inflation has declined to a 2.3% annual rate, down from 2.5% in August. And economists still expect the Fed to cut its key rate by a quarter-point when it meets next week.
Yes, some prices are still high during the previously high inflation rate, however, wages have also been growing greater than inflation for the past 18 months.
In February 2020, the United States entered what was by far the largest recession since the Great Depression. Nearly 22 million people lost their jobs, and real gross domestic product (GDP) fell 9.2 percent. Learning from mistakes made in prior recessions, Congress passed recovery legislation that prevented economic scarring and instead ensured a speedy and full recovery.
Thanks to bipartisan congressional efforts during the Trump administration and the leadership of the Biden-Harris administration to continue the economic stimulus, the United States has more than fully recovered. In fact, economic growth has outpaced projections that were made before the COVID-19 pandemic. In other words, the economy in 2024 is stronger than experts had predicted it would be in 2024 before COVID-19 even happened. And it is stronger now than it was projected to be by 2024 at the beginning of the Biden-Harris administration.
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After adjusting for inflation, an hour of work not only earns workers a higher wage than before the recession, but it also earns a higher wage than at any point in U.S. history aside from an anomalous period that, due to compositional effects in the labor force at the onset of the pandemic in February 2020, created a phantom blip in wages.
Immigration is down (77%)
After reaching a record high at the end of 2023, the monthly number of U.S. Border Patrol encounters with migrants crossing into the United States from Mexico has plummeted so far in 2024.
Rate of Southern Border Crossing
The Border Patrol recorded 58,038 encounters with migrants crossing the U.S.-Mexico border in August, according to a Pew Research Center analysis of the latest available government statistics. That was a 77% decline from 249,741 encounters in December 2023, the most ever recorded in a single month.
Please note that the rate of migration across the southern border right now is less than it was during most of Trump’s term, and less than it was when Trump left office.
Crime is Down (10.3%)
Violent crime decreased by 10.3% in the first six months of 2024, according to newly released preliminary FBI data.
From January to June 2024, the Quarterly Uniform Crime Report found that:
- Murder decreased by 22.7%.
- Rape decreased by 17.7%.
- Robbery decreased by 13.6%.
- Aggravated assault decreased by 8.1%.
- Property crime decreased by 13.1%.
The preliminary data is based on voluntary submissions from 14,809 of 19,311 law enforcement agencies in the country.
The Midwest saw the largest percentage drop by region, with a 12% drop in violent crime.
Violent crime in 2024, a top issue for voters in the upcoming presidential election, is continuing its downward trend from 2023.
Data released by the FBI last month found that violent crime was down 3% from 2022 to 2023, with murders down 11.6%.
Energy Production is Up (69%)
In 2023, energy production in the United States rose 4% to nearly 103 quadrillion British thermal units (quads), a record. Energy consumption in the United States fell 1% to 94 quads during the same period. Production exceeded consumption by 9 quads, more than at any other time in our records, which date to 1949.
Data source: U.S. Energy Information Administration, Monthly Energy Review
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The increase in total U.S. energy production was driven largely by growth in the production of natural gas and crude oil in 2023. Dry natural gas production grew 4% to a record 39 quads in 2023, growing 58% since 2013. Crude oil production grew 9% from 2022 and reached a record of 27 quads in 2023, a 69% increase since 2013. Production of natural gas plant liquids, a byproduct of natural gas production, increased by 8% from 2022 to 8 quads in 2023. Natural gas plant liquids production has increased by 143% since 2013.
Gas Price are Down (13%)
Gas prices have plummeted about 13% from a 2024 peak in April, which amounts to a decline of nearly 50 cents per gallon, according to AAA data shared with ABC News.
The national average price of a gallon of gas stands at $3.20, AAA data shows. In 16 states, an average gallon of gas costs less than $3, including Texas Georgia, North Carolina, Wisconsin, Kansas and Iowa.
Speaking to ABC News, some experts forecasted that the national average price would likely follow suit, dropping below $3 per gallon for the first time since May 2021.
If the problems of Immigration, Crime, Energy, Gas Prices and the Economy have largely been solved — why exactly do we need Trump back again to do?
All he’s going to do is walk in the door and declare “Mission Accomplished” because it has been. Then what?
He plans to implement tariffs that will greatly raise the prices for imported products.
Across the United States, companies that rely on foreign suppliers are preparing to raise prices in response to the massive import tariffs that former president Donald Trump promises if he wins the election Tuesday.
Producers of a range of items, including clothing, footwear, baby products, auto parts and hardware, say they will pass along the cost of the tariffs to their American customers.
The planned price increases next year would come as consumers are beginning to enjoy relief from the highest inflation in four decades, and they directly contradict Trump’s repeated assurances that foreigners will pay the tariff tab.
He doesn’t have a plan to put more cash into the pockets of middle class Americans, instead he wants to extend more tax cuts to the rich that have already added $7 Trillion to the debt during his term.
Tax cuts initially enacted during Republican trifectas in the past 25 years slashed taxes disproportionately for the wealthy and profitable corporations, severely reducing federal revenues. In fact, relative to earlier projections, spending is down, not up. But revenues are down significantly more. If not for the Bush tax cuts4 and their extensions5—as well as the Trump tax cuts6—revenues would be on track to keep pace with spending indefinitely, and the debt ratio (debt as a percentage of the economy) would be declining. Instead, these tax cuts have added $10 trillion to the debt since their enactment and are responsible for 57 percent of the increase in the debt ratio since 2001, and more than 90 percent of the increase in the debt ratio if the one-time costs of bills responding to COVID-19 and the Great Recession are excluded.
His plan to deport 13 Million people is likely to be massively expensive and do great damage to the economy.
In total, we find that the cost of a one-time mass deportation operation aimed at both those populations—an estimated total of is at least $315 billion. We wish to emphasize that this figure is a highly conservative estimate. It does not take into account the long-term costs of a sustained mass deportation operation or the incalculable additional costs necessary to acquire the institutional capacity to remove over 13 million people in a short period of time—incalculable because there is simply no reality in which such a singular operation is possible. For one thing, there would be no way to accomplish this mission without mass detention as an interim step. To put the scale of detaining over 13 million undocumented immigrants into context, the entire U.S. prison and jail population in 2022, comprising every person held in local, county, state, and federal prisons and jails, was 1.9 million people.
If you really do just stick to the factual issues — Trump doesn’t have a case. None.
There are many other issues of course, such as Reproductive Rights, LGBTQ Issues, ongoing Racial and Religious discrimination and International conflicts, etc.
On all those fronts, Trump’s position is even worse. He deserves, on all accounts and issues, to lose.
