Response to letter praising Trump
Let us look at Mr. Lollar’s letter point by point. He first lauds the President for taking no salary. President Trump has taken only the required $1 per year for his salary, saving the American people $1,599,996. I think of this as a stage magician’s misdirection. By early 2020, he had visited his own properties a total of more than 400 days. If President Trump had been in earnest about saving taxpayers’ money, he would have lodged and fed his Secret Service and other staff for free. Instead, he billed the U.S. Treasury almost $3 million. He put them up in $3,000-per-night cottages. When he met with the Japanese prime minister, he charged $3 per glass for the water they drank. He also has diverted over $20 million from his campaign funds into his businesses. As a lame duck, he has solicited money for his lawsuits, with the proviso that he may do anything with the money, including keeping it himself.
For his second point, Mr. Lollar writes that under Biden, we will have more benefits. He seems to imply that benefits are a bad thing. Perhaps he sees oil depletion allowances, sugar subsidies, water subsidies to industries, or farm subsidies (primarily to giant agribusinesses), as bad things, also.
Mr. Lollar predicts higher taxes. There probably will be. The tax cuts under President Trump saved guys like me almost $1,000 per year ($2,000 for a family of four), and guys like Trump, $50 million per year. The tax cut vastly increased the deficit.
Mr. Lollar predicts “less freedoms [sic]”. The Patriot Act was a Republican effort. That was followed by a bill that, among its thousand or so pages, states, “The President of the United States, or any person he may designate, may DECLARE any person an illegal enemy combatant” (emphasis added). The Bill of Rights does not apply to illegal enemy combatants. What freedoms are left to lose?
We will never be a socialist country. Except for Trump, we are unwilling to give any leader the kind of power that a socialist state requires. Biden has clearly distanced himself from socialist ideas. “I beat the socialist,” Biden stated in an interview.
Third, Mr. Lollar suggests that the stock market will crash. Since Biden’s election victory, the stock market has held steady.
I do not remember a “get their guns” platform plank in this election.
Mr. Lollar stated Biden has opened the door for China to “really take over.” China’s problem with “taking over” is that they hold trillions of dollars of our debt, earning tens of billions in interest. If they “take over,” the U.S. would default on the debt. It would be much easier and cheaper to maintain the status quo. At least Mr. Lollar’s statement about who pays may be true. China will keep pumping our money back into our economy.
Bill Gillmore
Columbus
The Dispatch Editorial Board is made up of publisher Peter Imes, columnist Slim Smith, managing editor Zack Plair and senior newsroom staff.
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