With just one week until election day, President Trump is desperately trying to spin his failed economy to families in the commonwealth. Pennsylvanians, however, are tired of his administration’s ineffective leadership — and nothing he says will erase some of his most egregious broken promises:
Trump repeatedly promised to grow jobs and wages, but even before the coronavirus hit, his failed trade war and misguided tax scam left Pennsylvania workers and small businesses behind.
PROMISE: “We’re going to bring back your manufacturing, we’re going to bring back our jobs that formed the backbone of the American middle class and our country as a whole.” [Trump in Valley Forge, PA 11/1/16]
PROMISE: “”We’re going to bring back our jobs. We’re going to make good trade deals.” [Trump in Ambridge, PA 10/10/16]
REALITY: Last year, thousands of Pennsylvania workers faced mass layoffs, as steelworkers lost their jobs and factories were shuttered.
REALITY: Today, there are approximately 25,000 fewer Pennsylvanians employed in manufacturing than when Trump took office.
REALITY: About half of Americans were living paycheck to paycheck before the coronavirus, and household debt hit a record high of $14 trillion at the end of 2019.
REALITY: Trump’s tariff war with China cost the US 300,000 jobs in one year and steel shipments are down more than 25% nationwide from last year.
REALITY: Trump’s tax bill allowed the 400 wealthiest Americans to pay a lower tax rate than all other Americans for the first time ever, and large corporations paid their lowest tax rates in three decades.
REALITY: Last year, Pennsylvania lost 470 dairy farms, after having suffered 370 closures in 2018.
Trump’s disastrous response to the coronavirus crisis has ushered in historic unemployment and left small business owners — especially those who are Black and Brown — out in the cold.
PROMISE: “America will again, and soon, be open for business — very soon — a lot sooner than three or four months that somebody was suggesting.” [Trump on COVID-19, 3/23/20]
REALITY: Pennsylvania’s unemployment rate reached 16.1% in April, the highest level in more than 40 years, and remains more than double what it was last year at 8.1%.
REALITY: Trump botched the rollout of the Paycheck Protection Program and failed to provide guidance, delaying badly needed assistance for small businesses. And his rules for the program prevented many small firms and minority-owned businesses from getting any assistance at all.
REALITY: Hundreds of millions of dollars meant for small businesses went to large public companies and firms with ties to Trump donors and associates, and Trump allowed hundreds of millions to go to Chinese companies.
REALITY: Seven months into this pandemic, Trump and republicans in Congress, have stalled negotiations on relief efforts and have completely given up on doing anything to control the pandemic.
###