To the editor:

I was never very interested in politics until 2013 when Obama started making agreements involving hundreds of billions of dollars with Iran, an enemy sworn to destroy the United States. That got my attention and I have been studying politics ever since. 

I have lost all respect for the Democratic Party. I would respect them much more if this administration would accept responsibility for the damage they have done to America and stop trying to blame everyone else. As everyone knows, we are in a serious inflation which is rapidly evolving into a recession and may further evolve into a depression.

While it is true that the present administration has not been totally responsible for our economic woes, they and past Democratic administrations have been responsible for a vast majority of them.

In my opinion, this mess started with Lyndon Johnson’s Great Society, including the welfare system, that was placed into law in the mid 1960s. The welfare system is a very complex, disorganized mess that is an issue in and of itself. It was the beginning, however, of the entitlement attitude that so damages our economy today.

Even then, our economy was doing well until the pandemic hit in November, 2019. Then, the roof started to cave in mainly thorough politicizing the issue by both political parties and extreme “the sky is falling” coverage by major media. We, as a country, over-reacted. 

President Trump, who had been a very good president up until that point in time panicked and made a major mistake by issuing a blanket stimulus payment not based on who actually needed it. Even a bigger mistake was to indiscriminately shut down the economy. 

Biden followed up on those mistakes by issuing another stimulus payment not based on need, but filled with pork for the Democratic Party’s favorite agendas. He doubled down on closing the economy, in spite of the terrible economic effect that was already having. He closed the Keystone Pipeline, stopped fracking on federal land and issued other mandates that inhibited the production of domestic oil. That drove up the prices of many consumer goods through increased transportation costs.

To further add to the problem, the Democratic leaders in California issued mandates making it difficult for truckers to operate in that state and then expressed astonishment when shipping supplies from the California ports to the rest of the United States became a problem.

Biden expanded unemployment to the extent that many people could make more money sitting at home than they could working. This just built on the entitlement attitude that is the key reason that many industries cannot find workers today.

When one considers all of the above, it is no surprise that we are in a serious inflation. In fact, it is difficult to believe that this many mistakes could have been made unless it was intentionally planned. It leads one to wonder if the Democrats are really that ignorant, or are traitors to our country.

Either way, they would apparently rather see America destroyed than admit that they have made mistakes that can’t be solved with half measures such as eliminating the gasoline tax. We must deal with the more complex underlying issues.

Achieving the pre-pandemic economy is going to take a lot of time, sacrifice and hard work. Our first steps in accomplishing this are to undo the terrible decisions the Democrats have made by making intelligent decisions at the polls this coming November.

Don McCullough

Manhattan