Elise Stefanik is trying so very hard to be Trump's VP pick while still pretending Republicans are the party of Reagan and that "shining city on a hill."
In today's installment of "what dumb question can I ask that will invoke Reagan," Stefanik actually went there.
Reading from prepared remarks, Stefanik asked, "As Ronald Reagan famously asked us, are you better off today than you were four years ago?"
And then she answered, "The answer for hardworking Americans across the country is a resounding no."
Huh. Let's climb back in our time machine to March 6, 2020. In early March, 2020, the coronavirus was spreading rapidly. Some colleges were beginning to close to prevent the spread, Trump planned and then canceled and then rescheduled a trip to the CDC, and his administration was considering tax cuts (no, really!) for airlines and cruise ships who were already hurting because of the spread of COVID-19.
Even at that early stage, it was obvious that the Trump administration had completely screwed up the national response to the virus, meaning more deaths were coming.
Tune the time machine to a week later, and Trump had given an address from the Oval Office which didn't help matters at all, Nancy Pelosi and Steve Mnuchin were working on a coronavirus relief package since it was obvious the virus was going to slow, if not shut down, the economy at that point. Testing was virtually non-existent as the virus raged across the country, and Mike Pence was out on the air blaming Democrats for panicking the country while downplaying the threat of the virus. Oh, and the burial pits for people dying of the virus were so large they were visible from space. Stocks dropped 25 percent that week, even though Steve Mnuchin reassured everyone there would be no recession..
On March 15, 2020, states were beginning to lock down. It was clear by then that there had been no real coordinated response to what was clearly going to be a pandemic.
We all should remember what ensued after that. Grim images of refrigerated trucks storing bodies, hospital workers having to reuse their gowns and masks because supplies were running so low. Everyone home, schools closed, businesses closed, markets running out of basics like toilet paper, lines around the block waiting to even get into markets to shop. Bogus "cures" like hydroxychloroquine and ivermectin were all the rage with the wingers who would also refuse to wear masks or isolate properly when infected with the virus. Get vaccinated? Forget about it.
Over 1 million people died. When Biden took office, he took steps to fix the supply chain, get rapid COVID tests into the hands of people, and get vaccines rolled out to as many people as possible. Democrats passed a huge relief package and the economy restarted. In the end, Biden's leadership brought the US out of the pandemic recession faster than any other country.
So Elise, the obvious answer to your question is an emphatic YES. We are ABSOLUTELY better off today than we were 4 years ago. All of us have suffered losses as a consequence of the virus, and all of us remember just how miserable that year was. Trying to memory-hole a pandemic is a fool's errand, because people like me and everyone else on the planet with half a brain will use the opportunity to show just how miserable this nation was 4 years ago.
What a massive self-own.
On Xitter, the response was epic:
It could have been so different. But Trump's narcissism and incompetence cost over one million lives and still counting.
