The Coronavirus Crisis Is the Wake-up America Was Due For

America has been relying on imprudent economic, domestic, and foreign policy for decades. We’re facing the harsh consequences of those mistakes now. Most of the issues facing the country could have been prevented or mitigated. Instead, politicians have ignored and exasperated the problems by kicking them down the road for future leaders. Many of our leaders are more concerned about their political future than that of the country.

President Trump has been successful more than any predecessor in a couple of critical areas but gets an incomplete grade on most big issues.

We haven’t had a president with the guts to confront China. They’re an evil communist regime and infamous for human rights violations. They’ve taken advantage of America for decades on trade. They covered up the severity of the Coronavirus outbreak and insisted the United States was the source. We need to make sure future presidents don’t allow China to treat us this way.

President Trump got us closer to energy independence than ever before. He’s taking the opposite approach from President Obama and not wasting billions of tax dollars on green energy policies that are insufficient to power America. Russia and Saudi Arabia are other top oil producers, and neither can be called friends.

It’s a smart policy by Trump to make us less energy dependent on countries that don’t like us. Those countries will continue to produce oil regardless of global warming concerns of the Left. We should do it here and provide Americans high paying jobs while implementing sensible environmental protection policies those countries wouldn’t while producing green energy in areas it’s practical.

Instead, politicians have ignored and exasperated the problems by kicking them down the road for future leaders.

Trump’s administration has been a fiscal disaster. He’s done a decent job getting rid of burdensome regulations, but the federal government remains bloated. The savings from deregulation isn’t enough. His 2020 budget was a record $4.75 trillion dollars. The budget forecasts trillion-dollar deficits for four straight years and wouldn’t get balanced for 15 years due to this. This is irresponsible and puts the country in an untenable and dangerous financial situation.

Republicans don’t even pretend to be a party of fiscal responsibility anymore. The national debt is over $23 trillion. It’s dangerous and unsustainable. China is the second-largest holder of our debt. This gives China financial firepower to punish the United States. Our government should be making moves to reduce our debt for our national security, not going into more debt and empowering China.

We are in an unprecedented financial emergency due to the Coronavirus outbreak. We don’t know what the final costs will be from this. Trump is planning to spend $1.2 trillion to help Americans who need immediate cash from job losses. That won’t come close to what people need if unemployed for months. It will cause our debt to explode and no one has a plan to pay it back. Who could afford a tax increase after the crisis to start paying down the debt when millions of people could be out of work due to the outbreak?

Another policy blunder by America is outsourcing pharmaceutical production to China. The Pharma Letter released a newsletter that reported China, “accounted for 95% of U.S. imports of ibuprofen, 91% of U.S. imports of hydrocortisone, 70% of U.S. imports of acetaminophen, 40% to 45% of U.S. imports of penicillin and 40% of U.S. imports of heparin, according to Commerce Department data. In all, 80% of the US supply of antibiotics are made” in China.

This is a horrible policy since we rely on a country where this outbreak originated. It’s an even worse idea since as stated before, they don’t like America. Why would previous administrations think it’s a good idea to outsource our medicine to this kind of country? If their production is cut, how will we get our medicine we need in critical times? The situation gets worse because China’s state-run media hinted at cutting off supply to the United States during the crisis.

Republicans don’t even pretend to be a party of fiscal responsibility anymore.

There’s more bad news about the power China has over the United States. Once again, it’s our government to blame. If you are reading this article on your cell phone while riding in a Prius saving the planet, you’re using products that most likely came from China we could have gotten in America in a safer fashion. These are rare earth minerals that make our plush 21st-century lifestyle work, and we don’t produce them.

Our government caved to the environmental movement and America lost her status as one of the world leaders in rare earth mineral production in 2002 during the Bush Administration. The result is China controlling over 80% of the world’s production of these critical elements. American’s didn’t stop their use of these products when it was decided to let an enemy control the production, it grew exponentially. The green movement saw it as a victory to get it out of America, but the production continues in China with lax regulation and the planet being harmed.

These are issues America is learning about due to the Coronavirus outbreak. It’s no secret we buy too much from China and that must change moving forward. Out government must make significant policy changes, so we are putting America and American jobs first. Our citizens deserve these jobs and it’s a serious national security issue. Our regulations need to change, so these essential products are as affordable or more affordable than now.

Decades of horrible policies put us in this dangerous position. Our politicians on both sides of the aisle knew about these situations and did nothing about them. We finally have a president who isn’t afraid to call out China on their actions. After this crisis passes, fixing these issues should be Trump’s top priorities. He can’t ignore the debt any longer. If the debt continues to get worse, how could we afford another crisis like this? It’s time for politicians on both sides of the aisle to do their jobs and make the hard decisions we elected them for.