Were We Really Better Off Four Years Ago under Trump?

Of late, Republicans have taken to thinking it would be politically advantageous to publicly ask voters, "Are you better off today than you were fours years ago?"   Well . . . do you remember where we were four years ago-- Friday, March 13, 2020?  Were we better off then?

It was on that day that a lot of businesses closed up shop, and millions of others were told to stay home from work because of the emerging COVID-19 pandemic.  Schools were closed; there were no church services, national parks closed; entertainment venues shut their doors  Trump held an embarrassing 72-minute press conference in the White House rose garden that made it obvious that he didn't know what he was doing.

"We don't want people to take a test if, if we feel that they shouldn't be doing it." Trump blathered.   He said that there would be 1.4 million COVID tests available the next week, and 5 million available within a month, adding, "I doubt we'll need anywhere near that."  Of course, we all now know that Trump did not meet those testing targets (in fact, HHS botched the first COVID testing protocol, resulting in the loss of precious time needed to identify and contain early breakouts of the virus).  And of course, people all over the country soon became desperate to get any testing they could.   Trump refused to take any responsibility for the widespread testing delays-- a true leader!

There were massive lines to get into grocery stores and shelves were soon laid bare, with shortages of almost everything-- cold and flu medications, canned goods, bottled water, dried pasta, and cleaning and paper products.  In that pathetic press conference four years ago today, Trump's incompetent HHS Secretary (Alex Azar) cruelly joked about the lack of toiler paper.  On that day, over 2,000 were reported to be critically ill from COVID and 41 had already died from the virus.  Hospitals were already seeing shortages of masks, medical gloves and protective clothing. 

When asked why he disbanded the White House pandemic office months earlier (which resulted in the U.S. losing valuable time responding to the crisis), Trump responded, "Well, I just think that's a nasty question.  Some of the doctors say it will wash through;  it will flow through.  An interesting terms, and very accurate, I think you're going to find in a number of weeks, it's going to be an accurate term."

By the end of Trump's term, COVID-19 had resulted in some of the deadliest days in U.S. history, exceeding the death toll on September 11, 2001.  By the time Trump left office, over 380,000 Americans had died of COVID-- too bad we can't ask any of those people if they think things were better off under Trump.