Special EditionTrump vs Biden/Harris Scorecard

October 12, 2024

Special Edition

Trump vs Biden/Harris Scorecard

Memorandum for Conservative Voters

 

By: Marvin L. Covault,

Lt. Gen. US Army retired,

11 October, 2024

 

SUBJECT: A VOTING SCORECARD

This memo aims 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's inflation in January 2021 was 1.4%.

Biden/Harris brought inflation to 9.1%. How did they do this? The simplest economic formula everyone knows is inflation, caused by “too much money chasing too few products.” Also, everyone knows that Trump sponsored a $2 trillion stimulus package for the American people in May 2020 because the nation was shut down from COVID-19. Few were working or getting paid. 

In December 2020, Trump signed what was to be the final stimulus package: $900 billion. Everyone was getting a COVID-19 shot, which would put people back to work. 

Soon after the Biden/Harris inauguration in 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. However, because the production of products worldwide 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 products.” Any first-year economics student could have predicted the 40-year high inflation rate of 9.1%. Middle-class and lower-income class families suffered from terrible decision-making and still do today.

Throughout the Biden/Harris administration, whenever the inflation rate went down half a percentage 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. 

The Trump-era bottom line is that paychecks grew faster than inflation. After inflation, average weekly earnings for all workers were up 8.4%.

Biden/Harris bottom line: Biden/Harris claim, “This country’s working people got a raise." The truth is, they did, with an overall increase of 4.7%. However, 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 will be $17.8 trillion, a 30 % increase under Biden/Harris. Bidenomics is an unsuccessful economic policy that will likely continue into a Harris administration. Are you better off now than you were four years ago?

GAS PRICES:

In 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 cost of everything we buy that comes out of a truck. The average price today, October 11, is $3.25.

INTEREST RATES: 

In January 2021, the 30-year fixed-rate mortgage annual percentage rate (APR) was 2.65%. On October 8, 2024, the national average 30-year fixed-rate mortgage APR was 6.45%. The highest rate in the past three 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 severe 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's policies on immigration.

To be more specific, a recent release from ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement) 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 that 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 five 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 many 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 friends 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. 

The oil industry has spent years planning and financing U.S. Oil and gas drilling. Before leaving office, Trump proposed 47 lease sales over five years. Biden/Harris canceled all lease sales for 2024 and will only allow three sales in 2025-2028, which is 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 vast 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 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.” They continuously look for new ways to tax and increase existing tax rates. Then, they look for ways to return those tax dollars to identity groups. It’s called “vote buying.” For example, using billions of taxpayers’ money to pay down student debt is a perfect example of 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 shows that 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 unfair.

Harris says, “The rich corporations need to pay more taxes.” Trump's tax cuts slashed corporate rates from 35% to 21%. Why? U.S. Corporations are at a substantial competitive disadvantage in today's globalized world. Our 35% tax rate was the highest among the 33 other industrialized countries that comprise the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), which had an average rate of 25 %.

First, Harris must understand that corporations do not pay taxes. People pay taxes. A corporation’s product is the sum of many expenses: raw materials, production, wages, advertising, taxes, etc. They add up all the costs plus a profit, which becomes the product’s selling price. A corporate tax is just another cost of producing the product, which results in a higher price for the consumer, making 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. This means that if you own an asset that increases in value, 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 decrease in value the next year? 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 and enforced UN sanctions on Iran, and its 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 Eastern 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: 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 allow it to live up to its 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 bloodshed 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 regarding foreign policy has to lead this nation.

LEADERSHIP   

Defining leadership can be a complicated task. But some simple pieces can tell a huge story. Great leaders by design, or sometimes it just happens to work out that they create an environment wherein a continuous sense of trust and respect runs both up and down the chain of command throughout an organization, no matter how large or small.  

Staffers who worked for Harris before she was vice president said one consistent problem was that Harris would refuse to read briefing materials prepared by staff members and then berate employees when she appeared unprepared.

VP Harris currently has a staff of 47. In just three years, the turnover rate has been 91.5 %. Twenty-four of the departees, nearly half, have departed in the last 12 months; one departee said in an interview, “VP Harris destroyed my soul.” Trust and respect?

The White House must be the ultimate workplace, 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 to have a rap sheet showing 10, 20, or even 30 prior arrests without having served a day in jail. 

· No-cash bail, immediately putting criminals back on the street, has become all too common.  

· Too many prosecutors do not prosecute apparent 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 the decisions that have had an impact.”  

How does VP Harris's no-change-necessary statement relate 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 Nikki Haley, with her successful leadership as governor of South Carolina and her four years of up-close-and-personal dealings in foreign affairs as a U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, were running for president, America's potential future would look very different. 

WE NEED AN INFORMED PRESIDENT

We have observed from the Biden/Harris administration leaders who are reluctant and appear incapable of standing in front of a room full of reporters and answering tough questions for an hour or so. Our conclusion 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 capabilities. We are hearing from some nameless, faceless staffer or bureaucrat. A very uncomfortable situation for We The People. 

TRUMP OR HARRIS?

While most conservatives clearly recognize that 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. I suggest that under these circumstances, we must 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. 

BOTTOM 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. Conversely, Trump 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, a retired lieutenant general in the US Army, is the author of two books, Vision to Execution and Fix the Systems: Transforming America, and a blog, wethepeoplespeaking.com.

If you do not take an interest 

in the affairs of your government, 

then you are doomed to live under 

the rule of fools.

Plato

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