David Matteson: Voting in election should be easy, based on prior records

To The Daily Sun,

In some ways the decision in this presidential election should be easy. Kamala Harris is the vice president so she owns much of what has happened under Joe Biden and Donald Trump has been president or running for president since 2015 so we have nine years to judge him on.

COVID however makes many of the statistics on the last two terms difficult to compare. Most of the job loss in 2020 was due to COVID and not Trump. Much of the job growth in 2021 and 2022 was due to the recovery from COVID and not Biden. Prices and inflation were lower at the end of Trump’s term due to COVID and prices and inflation have been much higher during Biden’s term due to the recovery.

Trump and the Republicans could have done more to control the border but didn’t. He promised to build the wall and have Mexico pay for it but he only built about 50 miles of new wall on the 1,954-mile border. Biden and the Democrats could have and should have done more to secure the border but didn’t. If Trump really cared about the border he wouldn’t have tanked the bipartisan bill earlier this year that would have been the toughest immigration bill in over 20 years.

In 2020, Trump said the stock market would crash if Biden was elected but it didn’t and the market is at a record high. He is again saying that if Harris is elected the market will crash.

Voters have to sort through all of the misleading statistics, lies, scare tactics and empty promises to make a decision in 2024. I think it is harder than ever as much political rhetoric is no longer tethered to reality. Politicians will say anything to get elected or re-elected.

David Matteson

Meredith