July 19, 2024
Dear editor;
Some of my friends say both presidential candidates are too old, Joe Biden, 81; Donald Trump, 78. Some political pundits say president Biden can’t deliver the Democratic message forcefully. He delivers the message with action, instead: First thing in 2020, Biden got the coronavirus pandemic under control by passing the American Rescue Plan to send $1,400 to low-to-medium income folks for basic necessities (that helped me, how about you?), extended a $300 per week unemployment benefit for 9.7 million out-of-work-people, expanded child tax credit program which Republicans later would not renew, and money for small business loans and grants for education agencies.
November 2021 president Biden signed a $1 trillion bi-partisan Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, including repairs for roads, bridges, and railways, public transit and airports, electric vehicles and low emission public transportation, high-speed internet to rural communities, broadband internet, and Clean Drinking Water. Trump promised an infrastructure bill every two weeks, but it never happened.
June 2022 president Biden signed into law the largest gun-safety bill to pass Congress in nearly 30 years.
August 2022 the bi-partisan CHIPS and Science Act allocated $53 billion in federal funding to manufacture semiconductor chips in the U.S, instead of relying on China for them. Little CHIPS run everything from automobiles and washing machines to defense systems.
August 2022 president Biden worked with both sides of the aisle to get things done, but no Republican voted in favor of the Inflation Reduction Act (formerly known as Build Back Better Act): major health care reform including insulin-charge-reduction to $35/month for seniors, a $2,000 annual cap for out-of-pocket prescription drug costs for Medicare-insured; universal pre-kindergarten and paid family leave, and $550 billion to combatting climate change. Vice president Kamala Harris cast the deciding vote.
Progress costs money. That’s why president Biden invested in more IRS agents and technology to crackdown on the ridiculously-wealthy to pay their fair share of taxes and use that money for the benefit of the rest of the country known as Bidenomics; president Biden’s vision for growing the economy from the middle out and bottom up by investing in America, creating good-paying union jobs, and lowering costs for American families.
President Biden supports Ukraine president Volodymyr Zelensky and his enduring fight for democratic freedom in Ukraine against the Russian-invader Putin. Weapons, not American soldiers, are keeping Putin at bay. If Trump wins, Putin wins to take over Ukraine.
At the recent RNC (Republican National Convention) July 15-18, Trump’s followers proudly held up signs with writing, that read Mass Deportation Now to show their allegiance to Trump. Trump says he has Article 2 which says he can do anything he wants as president and apparently the U.S. Supreme Court agrees with him with their Presidential Immunity ruling July 15.
February 2024 A bi-partisan Immigration Bill proposed by Oklahoma Republican Senator James Lankford to secure the border was ordered by Trump to be killed because it would look too good for Biden and not good for Trump to run on. Thus, Republicans in Congress killed it.
Moving a big ship such as America doesn’t happen over night. President Biden has accomplished so much in his first four years, he’s asking to finish the job in his next four years. Everyone is welcome on his ship, whether yellow, black, or white, whether female, male, or transgender, whether gay or straight, whether young or old, whether handicapped or not, whether Christian or not, whether Republican, Democrat or other, whether documented or not. Trump only welcomes the very rich aboard his ship.
I’m behind president Biden and his VP, Kamala Harris 100%. It defies logic, decency, and humanity to vote for Trump.
Mighty Joe is Way to Go.
Judy Siedlecki, Oswego