Who Made America Poorer and Dirtier?

At last week’s GOP midterm convention in Dallas, Vice President Vance painted a bleak picture of American life before the second Trump administration: “Two years ago, we have to remember, our nation, ladies and gentlemen, was tired.

We were tired of seeing our factories close.

We were tired of our neighbors dying of drug overdoses.

We were tired of not being able to afford anything.

We were tired of seeing the cartels and the criminals given free rein over our great country,” Vance said.

“And we were tired of being called racist for noticing that our country was becoming dirtier and poorer and less safe and less prosperous.” Who is responsible for this terrible state of affairs? The opposition party and immigrants, apparently.

Vance went on to say, “The Democrat legacy of the last few years was that they bankrupted our country and left us poor.

They left our country weaker.

They left our border wide open and our communities less safe.” But this account represents a preposterous inversion.

Almost every problem Vance lists, the Trump administration has made worse.

The administration’s environmental policies have made American water and air dirtier.

Its health-care, tariff, and tax policies have worsened inflation and increased the financial burden on most American households, even as incomes have grown.

And its public-health policies have led to outbreaks of contagious disease.

The Environmental Protection Agency under President Trump has revoked regulations on air pollution—including those on particulate matter that can cause heart and lung disease—after being intensely lobbied by the fossil-fuel industry.