By: Lisa Nicely
A warning about the state of the nation’s economy was given during the Paulding County Republican Party’s Lincoln-Reagan Dinner banquet on Saturday.
Stephen Moore, economist and author of Trumponomics, was the keynote speaker at the event.
The banquet also featured several candidates running for office, as well as a moment of silence for Commissioner Clint Vance, who passed suddenly on Sept. 20.
Moore talked about several topics including upcoming proposed bills coming out of the current administration.
“When (President Donald) Trump was in the White House, I was privileged to be in the Oval Office when several economic decisions were made,” Moore said. “I didn’t always agree with the decisions he made. Most of the time I did agree, but not always. He welcomed the debate. We would debate, and the president, he would make the decision.
“I truly believe every decision Donald Trump made in the Oval Office put America first,” Moore continued. “He always asked the question ‘will this benefit American businesses and American small companies?’ “
Moore said he has deep concerns about bills coming through President Joe Biden’s administration.
“The ($3.5 trillion) reconciliation bill is the single worst bill,” he said. “This is an extremely dangerous bill. We have to stop it. This bill will bankrupt our country.”
The amount of debt piling up in the nation is a major concern, Moore added. He said in the last month Trump was president there already was a $1 trillion COVID relief bill in place. He said Biden added another $1.9 trillion relief bill to the mix.
“But that was truly a blue state bail-out bill,” Moore said. “Did you know the red states of America — and Ohio is a red state– have an unemployment rate that is 2 ½ percent lower than blue states? There is a massive divide between red state governments working and blue states collapsing.”
He said he also has concerns about the $1 trillion infrastructure bill.
“That is not an infrastructure bill,” Moore said. “One $1 out of every $5 has to do with infrastructure. It is a new green deal. They want to get rid of our oil, gas and coal industries … Then they say we now need a $3.5 trillion social welfare bill, which is the Great Society times two. It’s really a $5 trillion bill.
“You are talking about $12 trillion of spending in one year,” Moore said, adding that Ohio’s state budget is only $85 billion. He added that taking into account inflation that spending is more than the government used to finance the Civil War, Revolutionary War, World War I and World War II, building federal infrastructure and putting a man on the moon.”
Moore also said he was concerned about the taxes small businesses will pay.
“We have 30 million small businesses in this county, and they are the heartbeat of the country,” he said. Moore added that energy taxes will affect everyone and inflation also has increased under the current administration.
“It shrinks your paychecks,” he warned.
“We have to stop this (reconciliation) bill,” Moore stressed. “We need more businessmen in the House and Senate. We did a study of the top 50 Democrats that deal with the economy in Washington. We looked through the resumes of these people … The average number of business experience is .5 years. They don’t know anything about running a business so why would we ask them to take control of our businesses? We have our work cut out for us.”
He said that children will be inheriting hundreds of thousands of dollars of national debt. According to the think tank agency, the Heritage Foundation, every child born in 2021 will have a $66,875 share of national debt. The foundation estimated that by the age of 18 that will be $111,552.
“This is a government that is going bankrupt and will go bankrupt quickly,” Moore said, adding the current leaders have no plan for getting out of debt hence the discussion of raising the debt ceiling.
Moore also discussed the raising of taxes rates and the inheritance tax.
“You spend your whole life paying taxes,” he said. “If you count state taxes, you have to hand over half of what you made in your lifetime for taxes. We have to kill the death tax. I’m committed to doing it.”
Moore said the economy isn’t the only thing to worry about for Americans.
“What happened in Afghanistan isn’t just a fiasco,” he said. “It is putting America in great danger. It is making us susceptible to terrorism. We will pay a high price for the disastrous foreign policy of this president.”
In closing, Moore said he believes Republicans will come back strong in the next mid-term and presidential elections.
“I think we’re going to slaughter them in 2022,” he said. “In, 2024 trump is running, and I think he is going to win.”
