Right-wing talking points’ aren’t a solid argument

Dear Editor,

I noted Roger Dolliver’s reply to my Jan. 29 letter with some
amusement. His main point was that I and “Dems” twist things.
He noted several of my points correctly but responded not with
evidence to refute them, but simply with rightwing talking points.
For example, he noted that the 14-plus million jobs in the Biden
era were, “not all ‘new’ but recovered jobs that were lost because
of COVID.” In fact, the jobs number was 4.8 million higher than
the February 2020 peak before the pandemic. In other words, a
third of the jobs were new. In addition, 790,000 of the new jobs
were in manufacturing.

Mr. Dolliver’s second point was that the good economy was due
to “high inflation under Biden.”

He should note that inflation was world wide, mostly due to
supply chain issues. Under Biden, the U.S. has the lowest
inflation rate of all major world economies. It is also coming
down the fastest. This while the unemployment rate has been at
50-year lows for the past 26 months. Source of above: FactCheck.
org.

He complains about immigration, but fails to note that the
Republicans in Congress refused to pass a comprehensive
immigration policy which was heavily weighted toward rigid
border enforcement because it would “help Biden in an election
year.” It’s one thing to point out a problem, but to refuse to fix it
due solely to politics is unhelpful, to say the least.
I could go on, but, you get the point. Fox News talking points do
not count as evidence. The facts point to a strong economic
recovery in the U.S., stronger than any other major economy,
including China. Biden’s plan to grow the economy from the
bottom up and the middle out has the best chance of helping the
average American as opposed to the Republican policies that
benefit mostly the very rich. The average billionaire pays 8.3% in
federal taxes largely due to Trump’s 2017 tax cuts for the
wealthy. Most of us pay a higher rate.

In medical school, I was taught to weigh all the evidence, not just
the most accessible. Getting data from sources other than right
wing echo chambers would be helpful.

As they say, “Garbage in, garbage out.”

Dr. Paul A. Haupt
Menominee
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