The GOP’s Policies Are Deadly
We have reached the point where we need to face the facts and I have to share with you some unpleasant truths. The incompetence of George W. Bush and Trump has killed a lot of people. You’re probably thinking that I’m shrill or being extreme. Please bear with me and read this well documented column.
The Bush Administration’s strategy to market the Iraq War to the American people in 2002–03 was deeply dishonest. Bush’s apologists have contended that the U.S. intelligence agencies simply made a series of honest mistakes. The reality is that according to a Senate Intelligence Committee report in 2008: “The Administration repeatedly presented intelligence as fact when in reality it was unsubstantiated, contradicted, or even non-existent.”
Unfortunately, the Iraq War turned out to be one of the biggest foreign policy blunders in U.S. history. This war ground on for over eight years and according to Nobel Prize winning economist Joseph Stiglitz, will eventually cost U.S. taxpayers $3 trillion. Sadly, 4,424 American heroes died in this conflict and an additional 200,000 Iraqi civilians perished.
Trump’s incompetence caused the unnecessary deaths of approximately 188,000 Americans during the first year of the Covid-19 pandemic in 2020. According to the British medical journal The Lancet, 40% of the 472,000 covid deaths in 2020 did not have to happen.
“Instead of galvanizing the U.S. populace to fight the pandemic, President Trump publicly dismissed its threat (despite privately acknowledging it), discouraged action as infection spread, and eschewed international cooperation,” The Lancet stated.
“His refusal to develop a national strategy worsened shortages of personal protective equipment and diagnostic tests. President Trump politicized mask-wearing and school re-openings and convened indoor events attended by thousands, where masks were discouraged and physical distancing was impossible,” the report continued.
In 2020, the U.S. had the worst response to the pandemic of any 1st world developed nation. For example, Canada’s per-capita death rate from COVID was 60% lower than here in the U.S. in 2020. The U.S. had 4% of the world’s population and 20% of the world’s covid deaths during Trump’s last year in office.
Despite his shambolic response to the pandemic, the voters gave Donald Trump another chance in 2024. Many voters either forgot about the pandemic or unjustifiably gave Trump a mulligan for 2020. Trump won by targeting low information voters who only remembered that prices were lower in 2019. In addition, 12 million people who voted for Biden in 2020 stayed home four years later.
Already, Trump is beginning to implement deadly policies. The most deadly policy is the whole sale destruction of USAID by Elon Musk and DOGE. Federal courts have ruled that destruction of that agency by executive fiat was illegal but the damage has been done. Musk moved in quickly and broke things. That will result in the deaths of over 3 million people in poor countries.
USAID began during the Kennedy Administration and was initially called the “Food for Peace” program. It was aimed at feeding poor people around the world, winning hearts and minds during the Cold War and providing a market for our farmers.
This agency’s duties were expanded during the George W. Bush Administration by the PEPFAR program. This program was passed with overwhelming bi-partisan support and was about the only good thing that Bush did. PEPFAR provided funding to help save the lives of those suffering from HIV/AIDS. As of 2023, this program had saved 25 million lives.
Trump and Musk have claimed that DOGE will substantially reduce the budget deficit. However, under the best case scenario DOGE has saved $6 billion, which is a rounding error when it comes to the federal budget. In 2024, USAID accounted for 0.3% of all federal spending.
The destruction of USAID has had profound effects in Africa. I enclose for you pertinent excerpts from Nicholas Kristoff’s March 15 column titled: “Musk Said No Has Died Since Aid Was Cut. That Isn’t True.”:
“Kristoff worked with experts at the Center for Global Development who tried to calculate how many lives are at risk if American humanitarian assistance is frozen or slashed.
An estimated 1,650,000 people could die within a year without American foreign aid for H.I.V. prevention and treatment
An estimated 500,000 people could die within a year without American funding for vaccines.
An estimated 550,000 people could die within a year without American funding for food aid.
An estimated 290,000 people could die within a year without American funding for malaria prevention.
An estimated 310,000 people could die within a year without U.S. funding for tuberculosis prevention
Trump’s defunding of the polio eradication effort may lead, by one U.S.A.I.D. official’s estimate, to 200,000 cases of paralytic polio each year.”
“The bludgeoning of PEPFAR and U.S.A.I.D., one of the most eloquent expressions of American values ever created, might be America’s most spectacular act of self-sabotage in generations,” the musician Bono, a longtime leader in campaigns against global poverty, told me. “U.S. development assistance had its flaws, as its recipients often pointed out, but it was as close to poetry as policy gets.”
In writing this piece, I’m not making the argument that your average rank and file Republican voter is complicit in these deaths. It is most likely that they are ignorant of how many people have died as a result of the incompetence of the last two Republican presidents. This isn’t discussed in the Republican media.
I’m also not making the argument that Bush 43, Trump and Musk are stone cold killers. My point is that they were/are shockingly incompetent and ignorant. Bush 43 and Trump are some of the worst presidents in American history.
We need to choose wisely during every election since the GOP is so radical and incompetent. If a reasonable Democrat is nominated, we have a duty to vote for him/her. We can’t hold out for perfection or purity. Lives are at stake. We need to get the message out ourselves because nobody will do it for us. Now let’s get it done!
Sources consulted:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/President%27s_Emergency_Plan_for_AIDS_Relief