The letter by Di Lothrop (Sunday, June 19) slammed my previous letter of June 12 and demands a response. In my letter, I was merely pointing out that Republicans will blame Biden and any Democrat running in this fall’s elections for high gas prices and inflation in general, yet they won’t do anything to solve those economic conditions if they ‘take control.’ Ms. Lothrop cites a number of facts that occurred during Trump’s administration. But, as every mutual fund prospectus states: “Past performance is no guarantee of future results.”

A number of her statements, while true, are misleading. A few examples:

• “Democrats currently control the government and they make the policies.” Not entirely true. With a 50-50 senate and the antiquated filibuster rule, Senate Republicans have blocked every major piece of middle class economic relief passed by the House.

• “We were energy independent.” Actually, we STILL ARE energy independent. The big difference is that we are trending towards more clean energy rather than dirty fossil fuels.

• “We had tax relief for the middle class.” Republicans delivered almost $2 trillion in tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans and largest corporations with their 2017 tax law. While Biden has proposed real tax relief for middle-class families, current Congressional Republicans have proposed $100 billion per year in tax increases on middle-class families.

• “The prior administration invested in America’s workers and families. They doubled the Child Tax Credit (CTC) from $1,000 to $2,000 per child ….” The CTC was started in 1997, and its limits have periodically increased over the years, primarily under Democratic administrations. While the 2017 ‘tax cuts for the rich’ did also increase the CTC, it was temporarily further raised early in the Biden administration. While Democrats are in favor of extending CTC, Republicans are currently blocking it.

• “The current phrase du jour of Democrats is Republicans are a ‘threat to our democracy’. How idiotic.” I disagree, and as my letter pointed out, Republicans are actively working right now to undermine our democracy by voter suppression, more guns for killing people, etc. It’s interesting that Ms. Lothrop didn’t dispute any of these Republican efforts to undermine democracy.

Lastly, as I pointed out, these are vastly different times than even 2 years ago. Putin’s war on top of supply chain issues resulting from the pandemic are a challenge for any administration. We need real solutions, not a look back. Vote Democratic for real solutions!

Newsletter