Letters: Preserve Biden’s legacy; early encounter with future star

Preserve Biden’s legacy

We’re grateful to President Biden for his long and valuable public service, but encourage him to step down and embrace the next generation of leaders.

Biden is an outstanding president. He led America through difficult times and is one of the most consequential leaders we have known.

His administration significantly improved the lives of ordinary Americans through historic unemployment and wage growth, and massive investments in infrastructure. He champions individual rights, including a woman’s right to control her own body, and forged a strong global community to preserve democracy around the world.

He has rightfully earned the world’s gratitude. It’s now time for him to step aside and allow the Democratic Party to choose his successor. As Biden notes, Donald Trump poses an existential threat to our nation, and we must prevent MAGA Republicans from destroying Biden’s legacy and 250 years of constitutional democracy.

Biden’s debate performance does not undo his historic accomplishments, but it does reflect ongoing age-related issues. As septuagenarians retired from rewarding, successful careers, we empathize with Biden’s reluctance to quit. But a younger, more vigorous candidate will emphasize Trump’s own cognitive decline, his relentless lies, criminal convictions, and authoritarian ambitions — and his unfitness for office.

Voters are eager for an alternative candidate to preserve and extend President Biden’s legacy, and defend us from the serious dangers posed by another Trump administration.

Please join us in encouraging President Biden to step down and leave the country in the hands of another excellent Democrat.

Early encounter with future star

I had my first encounter with Spencer Bivens shortly after the 9/11 terrorist attacks. While I had no way to predict his athletic success, I did see a focused and self confident young man who then would have been about 7 years old. I was working behind our house in the alley between our yards when Spencer told me he was “taking a collection for the people in New York.” After telling him that was a great idea and fishing for my wallet, I asked him how much he had collected so far. When he said “nothing,” I realized I would have the honor of being his first contributor. I’ve always looked fondly on this experience — and on meeting a 7 year old destined to find adult success, even without his skills on the mound.

Candidate concerns

For most people, cognitive decline is a private concern. But when it afflicts a president, it can become a worldly problem. For President Biden, as he struggles to get through the next four months, it also affects his ability to do the hardest and most important job in the world, for the next four years.

Regardless of alternative facts that our politicians often declare, most voters do not ignore the common sense evidence of their eyes and ears. People know what it means to grow old.

And when we see President Biden holding fewer press conferences than his predecessors, and even using shorter stairs to reach Air Force One, we know his age is a factor. Still, President Biden continues to assure voters that he can serve until he is 86. And this from a man who became Senator at age 29, survived two brain aneurysms, lost his young wife and baby daughter in a car crash, lost a son to cancer, and struggled with another son’s addiction.

But, we also realize that Donald Trump, our other major party candidate for president, is a catastrophe. He declares that Liz Cheney, a Republican who crossed him, should be tried for treason, in front of a military tribunal.

Misunderstanding tariffs

Based on his campaign promise to increase tariffs, it seems Donald Trump doesn’t understand how tariffs work.

When a product is manufactured in a foreign country and imported into America, the importer buys the product from the manufacturer, sells it to a distributor, who sells it to a retailer, who sells it to the consumer. If a tariff has been placed on the product, the importer pays the tariff to the U.S. Treasury, then passes the costs of the product and tariff down the line to the consumer.

Trump claims tariffs placed on Chinese-manufactured goods are somehow “paid by China.” (He doesn’t specify if the payor is the Chinese manufacturer, the Chinese Central Bank, or the Chinese Government.) He brags about how he’ll get China to pay the tariff, much like how Mexico would pay for the wall.

He clearly doesn’t understand.

Imposing tariffs on foreign-made goods simply increases the cost of imported products for American consumers, which is the purpose of tariffs.

The idea is to make the foreign-made product more expensive than its American-made counterpart, thereby incentivizing consumers to “buy American.” However, whenever there’s no American-made product of comparable quality, consumers bite the bullet and pay the tariff.

News reports tell us that a new Trump Administration would consider eliminating the federal income tax, replacing the lost tax revenue with tariff revenue. The American taxpayer no longer pays tax, and the replacing tariff revenue is paid by China! What genius!

There’s good reason no one proposed this before.