Don’t get distracted by ‘Antifa:’ Republicans think we’re too dumb to do the basic math.

Republicans Sen. Mitch McConnell and Rep. Andy Barr don’t want you to do the math, so they’re frantically waving red flags to distract you from how bad they are for the country and, more importantly, for your pocket book.

ANTIFA!!! Abortion. Second Amendment. Religious freedom. ANTIFA!!!! Liberals. Socialists. Pre-existing conditions (wink wink). ANTIFA!!!!!!!!!

Those red herrings are meant to obscure the reality that President Trump, along with his Republican enablers, have under-performed President Obama on almost every economic metric.

Here are the numbers to prove it.

JOBS: 193,000 vs. 250,000

Trump’s best average monthly growth in jobs was 2018 when the country added 193,000 jobs a month, 2,000 a month LESS than when Obama left office. Obama’s best year was 2014 when there was an average of 250,000 new jobs a month. Trump is on track to be the only president in modern history to have net job losses. (Wages had been going up, but that is little comfort for the 26.5 million people still claiming unemployment benefits.)

STOCKS: 47 percent vs. 79 percent

Trump touts his great job in driving up the stock market. But he’s a piker compared to Obama. From Trump’s inauguration to Oct. 2, 2020 (933 days), the S&P Index has gone up 47 percent. In Obama’s first 933 days in office, the index went up 79 percent. (This doesn’t help most people because the richest 10 percent of U.S. households own more than 80 percent of U.S. stocks, according to Edward N. Wolff, an economics professor at New York University.)

GDP: 3 percent vs. 3.1 percent

Trump said the Gross Domestic Product’s annual growth would shoot up. His best year was 2018 when the GDP grew 3 percent, just shy of Obama’s record of 3.1 percent in 2015. This year, the economy is projected to shrink 6.5 percent, which will drive the average for Trump’s entire term to around zero.

UNEMPLOYMENT: 26 percent vs. 55 percent

Under Obama, the unemployment rate soared to 10.4 percent in October of 2009, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. When he left office it was 4.7 percent. That is a drop of 5.7 percentage points or 55 percent. Trump’s best unemployment number was 3.5 percent in September 2019. That is a 1.2 percentage point drop, or 26 percent.

MANUFACTURING: 12.20 million vs. 12.56 million

When Obama took office in January 2009 there were 12.56 million manufacturing jobs, according to the BLS. This September, under Trump, the preliminary estimate is 12.2 million.

COAL: -31 percent & -63 percent & -43 percent

Trump promised to bring back coal, but production has dropped 31 percent under Trump, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration.

In Kentucky, coal production dropped from the first quarter of 2017 to the second quarter of 2020 (the most recent data available) a whopping 63 percent, according to state Energy and Environment Cabinet. Coal jobs have dropped 43 percent to only 3,760.

TRADE DEFICIT: $67.1 Billion

Trump promised to reduce the trade deficit with tariffs. Instead, August’s $67.1 billion deficit is the highest in 14 years, i.e. worse than it ever was under Obama.

NATIONAL DEBT: $6.78 Trillion

Trump said he would eliminate the national debt in eight years. It has jumped $6.78 trillion. By comparison, Obama added $4.4 trillion in his first term. Remember how hysterical McConnell and Barr used to get about the national debt? Hypocrites.

ACA: 60+ Votes

Republicans have voted more than 60 times to kill or water down the Affordable Care Act, aka Obamacare, without ever offering a meaningful replacement. If McConnell and Barr are serious about protecting people with pre-existing conditions, why haven’t they done anything in four years?

COVID-19: 210,000+ Deaths

This is the worst number of all. Cult 45 acolytes Barr and McConnell own these deaths, as well as the collapse of the U.S. economy, because they stood by silently and let Trump lie and fail to develop a national strategy for testing, contact tracing and distribution of medical supplies. Trump didn’t cause the coronavirus; his lack of leadership has made it far worse.

So, don’t get distracted by the laughable labels Republicans put on former Marines Amy McGrath and Josh Hicks (also a police officer). Vote your wallet.

Remember: it’s the math, stupid.

John Winn Miller is a retired journalist from Lexington who writes screenplays and produces independent movies.

This story was originally published October 15, 2020 at 9:28 AM.