Dear Editor,

In the Dec. 5, 2017, Advocate-Messenger, we were treated to yet another tranche of lies from Mitch McConnell. He doesn’t seem to remember that President Obama pulled this country out of the worst recession since the great depression by passing an economic stimulus package that garnered only three Republican votes in the Senate and none in the House.

Under President Obama’s leadership and guidance, the economy slowly recovered and reached takeoff velocity just at the time that Trump was elected. Like the rooster who thinks that his crowing caused the sunrise, Trump thinks that his election caused the economic upturn. The truth is that all of the elements that led to our present economic recovery were put in place under President Obama. Trump the braggart had little or nothing to do with it.

He praises Orrin Hatch for producing the present “Tax Scam” legislation. Billed as a “middle-class tax cut,” some 80 percent of the benefits go to the richest Americans and corporations. Meanwhile, Sen. Hatch is currently involved in his own “War on Children.” The CHIP (Children’s Health Insurance Program) provides health insurance coverage for 9 million children. It is out of money and Hatch refuses to allow the program to be reauthorized because “I have a rough time wanting to spend billions of dollars to help people who won’t help themselves — won’t lift a finger — and expect the federal government to do everything.” He’s talking about children, folks! Hatch and Roy Moore will make good bedfellows!

This tax bill was written by the lobbyists and rushed through without a single bipartisan hearing. It was passed in the dead of night to try and keep people from finding out just how bad it is! McConnell claims that it “ends incentives for corporations to ship jobs overseas.” In fact those incentives remain and are, in some respects, even stronger. If Trump supporters expect jobs to come back from overseas I would remind them that Trump promised a revival of coal jobs too. How many of those jobs have come back?

McConnell brags about including a provision in this act to allow drilling in ANWR (Artic National Wildlife Reserve). At a time when the U.S. should be moving to renewables, the Republicans continue to push fossil fuels, even extending to the world’s few last undisturbed wilderness areas. And he (McConnell) is proud of that provision. This is a sad spectacle.

Jim Porter

Danville