I have to respond to the letter “Future of America,” published in the Feb. 19 edition of The Malibu Times by Scott Dittrich. He characterizes President Obama as “inept” and opines that he has failed “in almost every area, including long-term, inherited problems.” He goes on to call the President’s foreign policy “an unmitigated disaster” and that he “has overseen the slowest economic recovery in 50 years.”
What has Scott been smoking? His predecessor, George Bush, was one of the worst presidents in American history, leaving Obama with two endless wars, a doubled national debt since President Clinton left office, and an economy in meltdown. In January 2009, the Dow was at 7,949 and today it is over 18,000; unemployment was at 7.8% and today it is about 6.6%; GDP growth was minus 5.4% and today it is plus 4%; and Obama has cut the annual deficit in half since he took office. Consumer confidence was 37.7% while today it is about 80%. Obamacare has added more than 11 million Americans to the healthcare rolls, bin Laden is dead and GM is alive, and we have substantially reduced our involvement in the wars Bush started in Afghanistan and Iraq.
The Republicans in Congress have one agenda: opposing Obama at every turn, no matter how much it damages the country. They clearly are pandering to the top 1% and Wall Street in a desperate attempt to suck up their campaign contributions and get reelected and have declared war on the American middle class and the undocumented. Speaker Boehner has violated the Logan Act by inviting BiBi Netanyahu to speak before a joint session of Congress on March 3 in an attempt to undermine the President’s negotiations to resolve the nuclear issues with Iran without getting the U.S. in another war. And the GOP may cause a shutdown of the Department of Homeland Security by the end of this week at a time when ISIS is making threats to attack American malls.
Mr. Dittrich: stop writing inflammatory letters and The Malibu Times: stop publishing them.
Ted Vaill
Vice President, Malibu Democratic Club