By Tom H. Hastings
According to a Fox News poll [1] taken this week, voters believe Donald Trump would do better than Hillary Clinton on the economy. This is a wildly poor assumption.
Look at the fair and reasonable indicators. We can surmise that Trump would continue his fact-free shoot-from-the-hip predatory capitalist approach, and that his policies might look more like George W. Bush’s than anyone else’s. We can also logically guess that Clinton’s policies would resemble those of her husband and President Obama’s.
What do we know?
- Bill Clinton inherited an unemployment rate of 7.3 percent [2] from Bush the Elder in 1993. He handed off the low rate of 4.2 percent to Bush the Younger.
- Obama inherited an unemployment rate of 7.2 percent from George W. Bush, with a loss of 632,000 jobs [3] in Bush’s last full month of his economically disastrous presidency.
- Unemployment is now 4.9 percent, with 255,000 jobs added in July [4].
- Financial analysts have shown [5] that, had Trump taken his wealth 30 years ago and invested it in a mutual fund, he’d be $10 billion richer today.
- A man far richer than Trump—Warren Buffett—disparaged Trump’s business acumen, saying that [6] “if a monkey had thrown a dart at the stock page” in the 1990s, that monkey would have seriously outperformed Trump.
- Trump is widely regarded as a slow payer, a deadbeat [7], a bully, and a liar in business deals, with many losses and approximately 3,000 lawsuits against him for his many failures to keep promises made in writing.
Seriously, my fellow voters? Do you believe for one heartbeat that Donald Trump would fix anything? Trump has zero public policy experience, of course, so we can never be sure, but I would suggest that the numbers do not lie. It reminds me of the late Flip Wilson as Miss Geraldine when she tells the man, “You a total stranger, and the total don’t add up!”
Indeed, those who fight for the betterment of the American workers—the labor unions—have analyzed the candidates and have come to the obvious conclusion that the Clinton policies would favor working people far more than would Trump’s.
The Donald has earned the endorsement of just two of them [8], the National Border Patrol Council (in apparent excitement over The Trump Wall and a huge border budget) and the New England Police Benevolent Association. Trump can console himself with the helpful endorsements of Mike Tyson and Hulk Hogan.
Hillary Clinton has received an enormous number of endorsements from those whose “art of the deal” results in better pay for many millions more Americans, these unions so far [9]: AFGE – American Federation of Government Employees, AFL-CIO – American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations, AFSCME – American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, AFT – American Federation of Teachers, AWIU – International Association of Heat and Frost Insulators and Allied Workers, BAC – International Union of Bricklayers and Allied Craftworkers, BCTGM – Bakery, Confectionery, Tobacco Workers and Grain Millers’ International Union, CWA – Communications Workers of America, IAM – International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers, IATSE – International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees, IBEW – International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, IFPTE – International Federation of Professional and Technical Engineers, ILA – International Longshoremen’s Association, IUOE – International Union of Operating Engineers, IUPAT – International Union of Painters and Allied Trades, IW – International Association of Bridge, Structural, Ornamental and Reinforcing Iron Workers, LIUNA – Laborers’ International Union of North America, NABTU – North America’s Building Trades, NALC – National Association of Letter Carriers, NEA – National Education Association, NTEU National Treasury Employees Union, OPCMIA – Operative Plasterers’ and Cement Masons’ International Association, OPEIU – Office and Professional Employees International Union, SEIU – Service Employees International Union, SIU – Seafarers International Union of North America, SMART – International Association of Sheet Metal, Air, Rail and Transportation Workers, TWU – Transport Workers Union of America, UA – United Association of Journeymen and Apprentices of the Plumbing, Pipefitting and Sprinkler Fitting Industry of the U.S. and Canada, UAW – United Automobile Workers, UBC – The United Brotherhood of Carpenters and Joiners of America, UFCW – United Food and Commercial Workers Union, UFW – United Farm Workers, UNITE HERE, USW – United Steelworkers, and UURWAW – United Union of Roofers, Waterproofers and Allied Workers.
Fortune magazine produced a slideshow of just some of Trump’s failures [10], documenting his accompanying falsehoods. Believing Trump is affirmation of P. T. Barnum’s putative aphorism, “There’s a sucker born every minute.” Watching the polls is a head-shaking confirmation that, I hope, reverses itself before November. There is far too much at stake.
Tom H. Hastings is Founding Director of PeaceVoice [11].