Archbishop William Lori of Baltimore rebuked comments made by President Trump over the weekend, taking issue with the president’s characterization of a congressional district that includes part of the city as a “disgusting, rat and rodent infested mess.”
“It saddens me to see Baltimore severely denigrated by President Trump,” the archbishop said in a statement posted to the archdiocese’s social media accounts on July 27. “Baltimore is near and dear to my heart. It is hometown to more than half a million people.”
The archbishop acknowledged that “Baltimore has its tragedies and challenges but also its strengths and opportunities.”
“It saddens me to see Baltimore severely denigrated by President Trump,” the archbishop said. “Baltimore is near and dear to my heart. It is hometown to more than half a million people.”
Archbishop Lori and Auxiliary Bishop Denis Madden also signed a letter dated July 29 along with 10 other faith leaders, condemning the tweet.
“It was horrible, demeaning and beneath the dignity of a political leader who should be encouraging us all to strive and work for a more civil, just and compassionate society,” the letter said.
The letter acknowledges that cities, including Baltimore, face “longstanding and systemic problems” such as “poverty, crime, violence and racism.” People of faith, the letter said, seek to improve conditions.
“Our congregations have a similar vision of health and prosperity for Baltimore, and they are working courageously and effectively to build up the city by their actions—not tearing it down by their words,” the letter said.
The group of clergy invited the president to visit Baltimore and they asked him, “in the name of all that is good, healthy and decent, stop putting people down. Enough of the harmful rhetoric that angers and discourages the people and communities you are called to serve—more than you know.”
Mr. Trump dispatched a number of tweets over the weekend railing against Rep. Elijah Cummings, the chairman of the House Oversight Committee. The president said Mr. Cummings’s Baltimore-area district is “considered the worst run and most dangerous anywhere in the United States.” It was the president’s latest assault on a prominent lawmaker, and the people he represents, two weeks after he sparked nationwide controversy with racist tweets directed at four congresswomen of color.
In response to the president’s tweets, some people on social media shared images of blighted areas represented in Congress by white Republican lawmakers who have not been subject to the same kind of criticism from Mr. Trump. But the president doubled-down, even sharing with his millions of followers a tweet from a non-American journalist calling the nation’s 25th-largest city a “proper sh*thole.”
Gov. Larry Hogan of Maryland, a Republican, on July 29 called the president’s comments “just outrageous and inappropriate.” Mr. Hogan, the new chairman of the National Governors Association, said he recently gave an address at the N.G.A. about the angry and divisive politics that “are literally tearing America apart.”
“I think enough is enough,” Mr. Hogan said on the C4 Radio Show in Baltimore. “I mean, people are just completely fed up with this kind of nonsense, and why are we not focused on solving the problems and getting to work instead of who’s tweeting what and who’s calling who what kind of names. I mean, it’s just absurd.”
Michael Steele, the state’s former lieutenant governor who went on to serve as the national chairman of the Republican National Committee, said it was “reprehensible to talk about the city the way” Mr. Trump did, but he hoped the attention would elevate the conversation about how to help urban areas, and he invited the president to be a part of the conversation.
“Put down the cellphone and the tweeting and come walk the streets in this community so that you can see firsthand the good and the difficult that needs to be addressed, and let’s do it together,” Mr. Steele said on the radio show.
For his part, Archbishop Lori said residents of Baltimore deserve respect from their elected leaders.
“Many good people are working together to address Baltimore’s challenges and to build on its strengths,” the archbishop said. “They deserve the support of elected officials and their fellow citizens.”
Material from the Associated Press was used in this report. This report was updated on July 30.
Baltimore has some terrible statistics. What are the causes? Who has been in charge? Maybe the archbishop should be addressing this. Where has he been all these years?
Let's see if anything positive for Baltimore comes out of this confrontation. Certainly nothing any Democrat has done has affected the situation much in a positive direction. Baltimore was not always an example of decay.
Who is in charge now? Donald J Trump.
You can't blame the President for Baltimore - that is the city, county, and state governments' failure.
No Trump is not in charge of Baltimore. Democrats have run the city for over 50 years. The amazing thing is to watch the apologists for Baltimore and how the Democrats have run these large cities and created the policies that have led to this decay. Where is the archbishop on this?
Baltimore has always been a working-class city, so there are a multitude of reasons: Major industries went out of business or off-shored production; Once a major seaport, as ships got larger, the harbor was too small to accommodate them; Corrupt politicians of both parties failed to provide oversight to income and taxes; And when they did pay attention, it was often to redirect money and resources to their political cronies; There was tremendous white-flight from the city during the 50's and 60's; Baltimore is home to some major universities, and has a ridiculously large number of churches and religious institutions (resulting in huge plots of property that is not taxable).
Well when I think of Baltimore, the first thing that comes into my mind is “Poe “ and the Tell - Tale Heart. Of course who could ever forget his famous poem. I think this is very Positive
Once upon a midnight dreary, while I pondered, weak and weary,
Over many a quaint and curious volume of forgotten lore—
While I nodded, nearly napping, suddenly there came a tapping,
As of some one gently rapping, rapping at my chamber door.
“’Tis some visitor,” I muttered, “tapping at my chamber door—
Only this and nothing more.”
I never saw such an explicit racist in The White House as well as a blind and coward crowd that try to defend this POTUS no matter how despicable his actions or words are. It is beyond my contempt!
Douglas Fang---
You stated my feelings, and millions of others, exactly. Thank you.
Not that it provides any consolation, but Andrew Jackson and Woodrow Wilson were both far worse.
Franklyn BUSBY---
I agree with your comments, including that Jackson and Wilson were worse. However, they lived in different times. Jackson died 15 years before the Civil War and Wilson was born four years before the Civil War. Although, it is very difficult to understand Wilson’s racial positions since he was a very educated man. In 2019, there are no excuses for Trump’s ignorance and bigotry.
Judith
You do not give Wilson enough”credit”. He was President from 1913-1921 and was the mainspring of The Progressive Movement. He single handedly began a policy of racial segregation in the Federal Government ,causing the dismissal of thousands of blacks from their jobs. He believed there was a scientific basis for racial segregation based on the inherent inferiority of blacks. His approach generated a Southern White Progressive Movement dedicated to separation of the races, erasing the many advancements after the 1870 Civil Rights Act. He was also an adherent the Margaret Sanger analysis of the need for eugenics. He believed all of these policies were soundly based in science and advanced thinking. You might note that the word “Progressive” rightly fell into disuse and it is only in recent years that the word has re-emerged to replace the sobriquet “Liberal” which was sullied by the failures of the Great Society and the Jimmy Carter years.
Stuart Meisenzahl---
I agree with your comments about Wilson. His policies did great damage to the black community.
I don’t agree with your implied comments about Margret Sanger. The pro-birth people have done an excellent job of misrepresenting Sanger’s views. She saved many lives by teaching women about birth control, an integral part of women's health care. She courageously went to jail several times for this; sometimes at the request (insistence) of the Catholic Church.
Judith
I do not believe I denigrated Sangers Birth Control position but I did point out that that she equally and vigorously promoted eugenics to address what what she deemed to be burdens on society and inherently intellectually inferior by reason of race. Her birth control position was also that such control would “contain those inferior races” and she actively promoted its use by blacks and other people of color. But to the point ....this eugenics and birth control program was a wellspring of/for the racism which the Progressive Program of Wilson et al promoted
What did he say that was racist? The real crime is the corruption and inaction that has resulted in the squalor of the area. Cummings is a hack, part of the machine that has failed.
Kevin Murphy: Agreed! He didn't say anything rascist about the slurpee four or Baltimore or Mr. Cummings. He just spoke the truth.
Kevin Murphy: Agreed! He didn't say anything rascist about the slurpee four or Baltimore or Mr. Cummings. He just spoke the truth.
Apart from the nicety of language, what your POTUS has said about Baltimore reminds me of the opening chapters of St John's Revelation or Apocalypse writing the descriptions of how the Lord saw gross flaws in some of the churches.
Trump is not eloquent, The time for rhetorical flourishes is past, US needs his bluntness.
And, what on earth justifies the nonsense of the "racist" jibe by this author? I am getting the idea that to some people a POTUS is only allowed to comment on issues exclusively concerned with people who are the same colour or race or sex; and am disgusted by the disingenuous use of abuse rather than addressing the substantive issues.
While, IMHO, he is an obnoxious ignorant jerk incapable of thoughtfulness or introspection, the problem is not just what the President says, but who he constantly attacks: Try to recall any time during his presidency (or before) when he leveled such crude comments about white women as he did "the squad." Lord knows there are many dying or dead cities and towns in the U.S. Somehow, the President seems to notice only those which are majority non-European. There are dozens of examples during and before his presidency, where Mr. Trump levels criticism only at non-Europeans.
Mr. Busby: How is this part of your comment humble: "he is an obnoxious ignorant jerk incapable of thoughtfulness or introspection."
Alan Johnston---
Even if Trump is not capable of rhetorical flourishes, he should be able to say things in an appropriate manner. Trump does this to people he is mad at…like a grade school kid.
I agree we are way past time for Trump to be addressing substantive issues instead of spending his time tweeting. He made campaign promises that he is not even dealing with.
Infrastructure promised. Trump said he would build an infrastructure "second to none." Instead we got none.
Healthcare promised. Said he would create better healthcare than what we have; he has produced nothing.
Balanced budget promised. He has increased the budget to the highest in our history.
Congressional Term Limits Promised. Nothing.
Medicare. Promised not to cut it. He cut it in his proposed budget.
They are many more promises not kept.
Please remember when Trump was elected, the Republicans controlled both Houses of Congress, yet he still accomplished very little.
Judith, I agree that the Republican controlled Congress accomplished very little the first two years of the Trump Administration. Since his election the Republican Party has been gradually made more and more in the image of Trump. When Trump was first elected Republicans like Mitt Romney were critical at worst and on the sidelines at best. There is very little bipartisanship in the Congress. Some say Bill Clinton was the "first black President" while Obama was of mixed race. If Trump is to be believed, he is a "post racial President." By the way Trump is not without support among Blacks, both locally and nationally.
James Schwarzwalder—
I agree with your comments. Yes, there are some blacks that support Trump, but the overwhelming view of Trump in the black community is a very negative one. I remember even when Nixon was promoting his Southern Strategy, there were some blacks that supported him. There are always groups who have members that swim in the opposite direction.
Mr. Johnstone: Agreed - "Trump is not eloquent, The time for rhetorical flourishes is past, US needs his bluntness."
One can be blunt without being rude and ignorant.
Ms. Jordan: Sometimes bluntness needs to shock to get the truth across. The President is not being rude; he's telling the truth.
Ms. Jordan: Sometimes bluntness needs to shock to get the truth across. The President is not being rude; he's telling the truth.
i have read that Jarrid Kushner is owner..landlord of multiple dwellings /buildings in Baltimore. ironic...and disgusting.
Karen O'Connell: Are Jared Kushner's building rat infested slums?
Let us not forget that Mr. Trump, though under the guise of Trump family members, is also a slum lord. He and his father were both sued by local, state, and federal government agencies, for blatant housing discrimination and red-lining, fraudulent advertising practices, unsafe dwellings. Donald Trump has the singular distinction of having been sued more times in the state of New York for breach of contract and fraud than any person or company in New York history. He will almost certainly be prosecuted (and ought to go to jail) for multi-year and jurisdictional tax fraud immediately after leaving (or being thrown out of) office.
When Rep. Elijah Cummings criticizes the President's handling of the border is he a racist? When Rep. Cummings shouts at Homeland Security Secretary McAleenan during a hearing on border conditions is he a racist? When President Trump claims that conditions in Rep. Cummings' District are worse than the border why is he a racist? Race has nothing to do with this dispute.
No. You are mixing apples and oranges. Cummings is criticizing policies and actions of the Trump Administration. The President, on the other hand, mostly just wallows in the gutter with personal attacks and mis-direction. As a federal official, Cummings has no authority or responsibility for what happens in a city that is only partly in his district. The president, however, has complete authority and responsibility for the actions of his administration--and has gone out of his way to choose utterly incompetent people to head federal agencies, but they are willing to do his bidding.
I loathe and despise everything he represents, but the man is a brilliant street-fighter. Every time his lack of competence, or consciousness, winds up on the front page, he creates some B.S. firestorm that misdirects the people and the media. He may be the best con-man and scam artist in American history.
Franklin,
In principle I completely agree with you. When it comes to his presidency, however, I don’t believe for a minute that anywhere near as many people are actually fooled by Trump’s demagoguery and endless litany of bald-faced as his level of support indicates. As as example, I live in the Chicago area and sometimes listen to Relevant Radio (Catholic) and Moody Radio (Evangelical) just to get their perspective. The commentators on both stations pretend to believe most of Trump’s most obvious lies, if not all of them. Likewise, they perpetuate the absurd idea that he is basically a good and decent man who is just a victim of slander by the “liberal media.” Of course they know that what they are saying is not true: they just pretend to believe it, because doing so suits their political agenda. This is what makes it very difficult to have meaningful dialogue with Trump’s supporters: most of them don’t actually believe what they’re saying. I’m not just talking about his fanatical base, but the other 15% or so of the electorate whose support was necessary to get him elected.
Ashley Green---
How sad it is that a Catholic station (Relevant Radio) defends Trump.
I agree with many of your comments. Evangelicals, who support Trump, apparently do not require their political opinions to be a product of their religious beliefs as they have always claimed. Instead, they twisted their religious beliefs to fit their political views which permitted them to vote for a maleficent and cruel malcontent.
In their desperation to rationalize their support of Trump, they keep comparing him to Biblical people who sinned, but repented. For some time, their choice was the Biblical David. David and Trump both sinned, but they are nothing alike. David was a good man who did some bad things and repented. Trump is a bad man who I assume does some good things sometimes. But, I am not aware of Trump finding fault with himself or repenting. The comparison is amazing and funny.
Ms. Delurgio: You are right-on-point: there is nothing racist in his tweet or in his comments about the slurpee-four. The civil rights movement has sunk to this level of everything is racist if it involves people of color because the movement needs to justify its continued existence; the huge salaries it pays people in leadership in its organizations, and to distract from its support of Planned Parenthood's agenda of genocide of people of color.
During the 2016 national elections, republican party voters and a section of the Christian voters who voted for Mr. Donald Trump strongly objected to Hillary Clinton’s use of “deplorables”. But well before the 2016 election during President Obama's administration and during the 2016 elections, Mr. Donald Trump called the United States of America garbage and hell. Also, today, Mr. Trump selected some American cities and described them as being rats and rodents infested. These cities which Mr. Trump abused and denigrated have majority of people who do not look like Mr. Donald Trump, and the section of the Christian voters who voted for him.
In 2019, forgetting how he-Mr. Donald J. Trump described the United States of America during President Obama's administration, he, Mr. Trump described as unpatriotic the criticisms of Congresswomen Ilhan Omar, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Rashida Tlaib, Ayanna Pressley of his-Mr. Trump’s handling of the country. Mr. Trump told these Congresswomen-who are of African and Latino descent to go back to “their countries.” All the Congresswomen are American citizens. A section of Christian voters who voted for Mr. Trump because they claimed he-Mr. Trump is a “Christian” with “Christian” values supported his attack on the Congress women.
Before and during the 2016 elections, Mr. Trump headed the birther movement-the birther movement claimed that President Obama is not an American citizen by birth. Mr. Trump attacked the country -United States Of America-under the presidency of President Obama. Mr. Trump called President Obama’s natural birth citizenship to question. Nobody said Mr. Trump was being unpatriotic for criticizing President Obama, the United States of America and President Obama’s administration.
Mr. Donald Trump’s paternal parents were from Germany. His maternal parents were from Scotland. His latest wife -Melania Trump is Melanija Knavs who was born in Novo Mesto, Slovenia (then part of Yugoslavia), on April 26, 1970. Her father, Viktor Knavs (born March 24, 1944), was from the town of Radeče . Melania Trump's father managed car and motorcycle dealerships for a state-owned vehicle manufacturer. Melania Trump came here to the United States on a B1 visa-a visitor’s visa. Melania Trump worked on B1 visa when she should not have worked. That is the law. She has denied this. But the facts do not support her denial.
The Christian voters who voted for Mr. Donald J. Trump who are so "concerned" about immigration do not talk about this-about the fact that someone worked on a visa she was not supposed to work on. They often look the other way when this issue is raised as a form of hypocrisy and double standard. Today, Melania Trump’s parents have emigrated to the US with the help of Melania Trump, Mr. Donald Trump’s latest wife. This is “chain migration” which Mr. Trump, and the section of the Christian voters who voted for him condemned!
So, when Mr. Trump attacked the US and President Obama before 2016 elections and during the 2016 elections nobody asked Mr. Donald Trump to go back to Germany or Scotland. Nobody asked Melania Trump to go back to Slovenia. The section of the Christian voters who during Mr. Donald Trump’s rally in Greenville, North Carolina in July 2019 shouted “send her back” to the four Congress women did not ask Mr. Trump to go back to Germany or Scotland. They did not ask Melania Trump and her parents to go back to Slovenia, when her husband, Mr. Trump was criticizing the United states of America during President Obama’s administration. The same Christian voters who took exception to Hillary Clinton’s use of deplorables in 2016 have defended Mr. Trump’s description of Baltimore as “infested with rats and rodents” as a place no human beings can live-which means people who live in Baltimore are not human beings i.e worse than "deplorables." So these Christian voters are complicit in Mr. Trump’s description of people who live in Baltimore as not being human beings, as being worse than "deplorables."
Questions.
1. Why was it right for Mr. Trump to criticize the country under President Obama and actually called the citizenship of President Obama to question and why is it wrong in the eyes of Mr. Trump’s Christian voters- for the four Congresswomen to criticize Mr. Donald Trump? Why did a section of the Christian voters approve of this double standard? Is it because the four Congresswomen do not look like Mr. Donald Trump and the section of the Christian voters who voted for Mr. Trump?
2. Why did the section of the Christian voters defend Mr. Trump’s description of Baltimore and the people as rodent and rat infested mess while they object to Hillary Clinton’s use of deplorables? Is it because the people who form majority of the people of Baltimore do not look like Mr. Donald Trump and the section of the Christian voters who voted for him?
Conclusion:
In my conclusion I will call your attention to the 2016 voting data of the 2016 election by demographic. They form the factual basis of my preceding observations. The Pew Research is titled "An Examination of the 2016 electorate based on validated voters" and dated August 9, 2018. It is online. Google Pew Research and you will get it. So, verify the report yourself. It is open. I called attention to it in a previous post.
The report says that: (i) 56% of the Protestants(including evangelical voters) claimed they voted for Donald Trump, while 36% claimed they voted for Hillary Clinton; (ii) 52% of Catholics claimed they voted for Donald Trump, while 44% of Catholics said they voted for Hillary Clinton.
Conversely, a solid majority of the religiously unaffiliated – atheists, agnostics and those who said their religion was “nothing in particular” – said they voted for Clinton (65%) over Trump (24%).
The Pew Research Center report also says and I quote . "Within the Protestant tradition, voters were divided by race and evangelicalism. White evangelical Protestants, who constituted one out of every five voters, consistently have been among the strongest supporters of Republican candidates and supported Trump by a 77% to 16% margin."
Now this is my conclusion. I am a Christian. I am a Catholic, and proudly so, and I hold my loyalty to a higher Being-God, the Christian God. If as a Christian you voted for Mr. Donald Trump in 2016, then you voted for this racism and bigotry-under Mr. Trump. You-as a Christian called Mr. Donald Trump a “Christian.” Hence, you said you were voting on "faith" grounds, and you claimed that you voted for Mr. Donald Trump on "faith" grounds! Elections have implications. So, you by act of omission or commission voted for this, this double standard, this hypocrisy which smacks of racism, xenophobia and bigotry which are directly and indirectly on display in the county today under Mr. Donald J. Trump. Let us call a spade a spade.
Again, as a practicing Catholic, a proud one. I read and study the scriptures. So, I know from the depth and the profundity of the scriptures-God’s Word- that you cannot reconcile racism with Christianity. It is not possible under any circumstance. You cannot reconcile racism with God. No true Christian can be a racist. No racist can be a genuine Christian. If you are a racist, you must drop Christianity. If you are a Christian, you must drop your racism, if you were one. Racism and Christianity are incompatible and irreconcilable. Our God, the Christian God is against division, bigotry, xenophobia, racism(John 17:21).
So we will pray that may God, (our God, our Christian God) the God of reconciliation, the God of forgiveness, the God of unity, the God of love, the God of peace, the God of joy, the God of kindness, the God of mercy, in His infinite mercy continue to forgive us, comfort us, bless us and be kind to all of us in spite of everything we thought or did not think, said or did not say, did or did not do, given our mortality, weaknesses, and brokenness. God Bless you all.
Adeolu, you often have too much to say as a response. I suggest that you write your own columns, and send them to the editors for publication.
Denise Delurgio
We are on a historical ground. So, all facts must be put on record. Mr. Donald Trump works on the amnesia of people. He throws one tweet and everybody rushes for it. He moves to the next because he knows that people will forget the last tweet and will fail to connect the last tweet with the new one. Tweets can impoverish public discourse, as you can see whereby people take just one aspect of the issue and fail to see the connection with the other aspects. It is a tragedy of our time that tweets have become the main instrument through which a modern government conducts serious business of governing the people.
I take the country seriously, so I do not fall for such trick because I have an eye fixed on the past, the present and on the future- i.e. history, and I expect anyone who takes the country seriously to be historically conscious. I take everything in a holistic manner and put them on record for historical memory and history and for future historians to work on. In future, scholars and others will come back to dig into all these and pronounce on them. This is the way to put Mr. Donald J . Trump and those who put him in government on historical record. If anyone has objection, they should state their objections. Again, we are on historical ground, and all facts, and comments will be put on historical record for the public good of future generation. Thanks.
I agree with Adelou. Thanks for taking the time and effort to pull all of this together.
Mr. Ademoyo, outstanding comments. Thanks..
Adeolu---
Excellent comments as always. Thank you.
Denise Delurgio---
Responses to these issues require long statements to thoroughly discuss the complexity of the issues. The short comments of Trump supporters really don’t contribute anything to the discussion except to usually spew out ad hominem attacks---the weakest form of debate and Trump’s only ability at debate.
Adeolu is performing a much needed service for us.
How strange that Archbishop Lori decided to rebuke the President for speaking the truth when he hasn't rebuked himself and his brother bishops for lying about episcopal miscreance, e.g. McCarrick, Bransfield, and so many others.
The President is speaking the truth. I've been in Baltimore multiple times in the past 11 years. In 2008 I spent considerable time at The Johns Hopkins Hospital Comprehensive Transplant Center being tested, donating, and for follow-up testing. Over the years I've been back as I participate in some long-term studies of the effects of kidney donation on living donors. Mr. Trump is right!
Mr. Brandlin, you are to be commended for donating a kidney and contributing to research at Hopkins, but this doesn't make you an expert on the city of Baltimore. To talk about the subject rationally, you would have to do comparisons with other American cities, which included reading up on the available statistics that point to the various upsides and downsides of various locales. Now, I hail from Baltimore and have many relatives and friends still living there and I can tell you for a fact that Trump's comments are damaging They cause harm, and I know of nothing they offer that is constructive.
You apparently also are not an expert on malignant narcissism and sociopathy. Otherwise you would not feed the beast by saying Trump is right. Narcissist's excel at identifying weaknesses, with which they go for the jugular. They are always somewhat right when they engage in their assaults on human dignity. They are known to find kernels of truth and splatter them about to cause maximum humiliation. They are, I will argue, better at bearing false witness than almost any other personality type. Unfortunately, the ability to degrade is often all they have.
.... i have read that jarrid kushner (aka Drumpf's son in law) is owner of many of the buildings that 'grace' baltimore. thanks Lori.
This class of Bishops have zero credibility and have done to the Church what the democrats have done to the inner-cities. They claim to be helping people but there is no accountability and outcomes keep deteriorating, but they’re still able to enrich themselves with taxpayer money, and in the Bishops case also selling off church assets. It’s no supersize they rely on each other to perpetuate their ignorant narratives in order to extract more money from the taxpayers. But it’s the people living in those projects that agree with Trumps assessment! Where is all the money going? We now have the Bishops defending rat infested housing .., lol
Some of the comments below are so distorting that I will opt out of reading them in the future. Malignant narcissists and sociopaths, such as Trump, excel at honing in on kernels of negative truths that they splatter around to cause maximum embarrassment. They excel, therefore, at slander aka bearing false witness, and get away with it sometimes because there are kernels of truth in what they allege. Trump's comments are so incredibly offensive and unpresidential. I am a Baltimore native and have relatives and friends still living there. I so appreciate the statement set forth by the archbishop, and this article on America.org. I don't appreciate Catholics who see fit to feed the beast of narcissism that lends itself to fascism that could destroy our democratic republic if unchecked. We must push back, as these servants of Christ do so beautifully.
We hear 40% of U.S. households would struggle paying for an unplanned $400 expense. Do 40% of neighborhoods in the country also struggle to pay for garbage collection, keeping streets in good repair, providing safe drinking water, etc.?
That’s too bad about the 40%. Everyone else does okay, right? The past forty years of tax cuts promised taxpayers could keep more of what they earned. Let’s do some math…forty years of tax cuts plus forty years of wage stagnation equals forty years of wage stagnation. What was the point of forty years of tax cuts?
What income do most tax filers earn today? As a share of national income, it's way down from 1980. What was the point of forty years of tax cuts?
National debt as a share of GDP has skyrocketed since 1980. What was the point of forty years of tax cuts?
I live in Baltimore. Of course the discussion is unnecessarily binary. We have great neighborhoods and awful ones. But I am glad that the issue was raised by the President (but not in such a vulgar way) and Archbishop Lori's recitation of the old mantra"we have long standing and systemic problems" falls flat. Yes, we have been saying that for decades but what are the new ideas. Yes, the problems are complex but where are the really innovative solutions. Its past time to talk platitudes and, I'm sorry, prayer walks are not going to help.
jerry lawler, do you seriously believe your president went on his rant against Baltimore to in some way help the city? Need I remind you that Elijah Cummings is heading an investigation against Trump family as part of his ethical obligation to provide Oversight? Cummings is the Chair of House oversight and just before Trump launched into his attack, Cummings and his team issued subpoenas. That is what this is all about, not improving Baltimore.
By the way, I hail from Baltimore and have family and friends still there. Have you read up on other American cities, and states, for comparisons. I have!
I seems like you are posing an enemy in President Trump. I didn't say anything about his motives. I did not attribute fault to anyone. Please reread my post. I thought Archbishop Lori's response was flat and uncreative and unhelpful as it just repeated the old cliches about longstanding and systemic problems.