Millions of Americans are suffering owing to the “negligence and incompetence” of President Donald Trump who had turned his back on the middle class well before the COVID-19 threat emerged, the opposition Biden Campaign has claimed.
It said that President Trump inherited the longest economic expansion in history from the previous Obama-Biden administration, but has “squandered” it.
“Today’s announcement that our economy has been in recession for months now is a reminder that well before the COVID-19 threat emerged, President Trump had already turned his back on the middle class,” the Biden Campaign alleged on Monday.
Claiming that Mr. Trump cut taxes for big corporations and the richest Americans instead of investing in the middle class, the Biden Campaign said that the president drove manufacturing into a recession across the Midwest and systematically stacked the deck against working families who were struggling to get ahead.
“And now, even in a recession, President Trump is doubling down on this agenda, diverting money meant for small businesses to big corporations and his wealthy donors, and presiding over the largest corporate bailout in America with no strings attached, and little oversight,” it said.
Noting that the president is not responsible for the coronavirus, the Biden Campaign said that he was responsible for a completely bungled response that not only cost thousands of lives, but millions more jobs than should have been lost.
The “unprecedented magnitude” of the economic hit, and the “broad reach” of it — that is on Mr. Trump, it said.
“It did not have to be this way. Millions of Americans are suffering right now because of his negligence and incompetence,” said the Biden Campaign.
“We should all remember that when he tries to take credit for the hard work of the American people to get the economy back on track — because he certainly isn’t doing anything to help,” it said.
In another statement, Democratic National Committee Chair Tom Perez alleged that after inheriting a strong economy from his predecessor Barack Obama, Mr. Trump has sent the country off the rails.
“Trump’s top-down economic agenda was already slowing our economy, making it more vulnerable to the impacts of the COVID crisis. Then his failure of leadership plunged us into a recession, marking the end of the longest era of economic growth on record,” he said.
“Despite Trump celebrating the country’s 13.3 per cent unemployment rate last week, 21 million Americans are unemployed, and one-fifth of the American workforce has lost work or given up on trying to find a job,” Mr. Perez said.
“Over 110,000 Americans have died; many small businesses have shuttered for good; and our nation is gripped by civil unrest that Trump has only exacerbated through violence and vitriol. Make no mistake: This will be Donald Trump’s legacy. And voters will not forget his failures on Election Day,” the DNC chair said in a statement.
