RAY LAHOOD

Election Day Nov. 3 will soon be upon us. My first presidential election was November 1968. I voted for Richard Nixon mainly because he promised to heal the country after the assassinations of Martin Luther King and Robert Kennedy. Also, he promised to get us out of the Vietnam War and bring our troops home.

The ’60s were an extremely tumultuous time for America. Most of us never dreamed we could face such a tumultuous time in our nation again. However, I believe our country is as divided or more divided now than I can ever remember during my time watching and participating in politics and public service.

We need leadership in America to heal our country, to bring together people of different opinions, different philosophies, different political perspectives. The current occupant of the White House, President Trump, has failed the American people in bringing the country together. He has proven over the four years to be a divider not a uniter. Rather than “draining the swamp” in Washington, D.C., he has filled the swamp with corrupt people whose only intentions were to game the political system for their own benefit or to benefit President Trump.

President Trump has been unable to solve some of our most serious problems. President Trump’s most serious lack of leadership is his inability to lead on solving the coronavirus pandemic. While just about every other country in the world has taken steps and shown leadership to stem the increases in coronavirus cases and deaths, President Trump has ignored the professional medical people and shown no leadership which has resulted in hundreds and thousands of deaths of our fellow Americans and hundreds and thousands of Americans being infected with coronavirus.

America has the best health care system in the world, and President Trump has ignored the science, ignored the experts, ignored the professionals and set America on a course of disease and death.

We can do better and will do better with different leadership in our government. There are so many issues that President Trump has ignored including fixing our crumbling infrastructure. No leadership for transportation and infrastructure legislation. No leadership to fix our broken Immigration system. No leadership to get millions of Americans back to work. No leadership to open small businesses that have been shuttered. No respect from the International community. No solutions for dramatic climate changes that are taking place.

The economy is the worst since the Great Depression. So many businesses shuttered. So many people have been laid off and lost their jobs. While President Trump may take credit for a strong economy during his first few years in office, he now must take responsibility for a lousy economy that exists today. The once strong Trump economy is now the worst Trump weak economy. President Trump has failed America! He has failed to “Make America Great Again.”

Now, for my reasons for supporting Joe Biden.

During my four and a half years serving in the Obama/Biden Administration as Secretary of Transportation, I worked closely with Vice President Biden on the $870 billion stimulus law passed by Congress to jump start our economy. I was a member of the Stimulus Task Force appointed by President Obama and chaired by Vice President Biden. Vice President Biden attended and chaired every weekly meeting. He made certain that every stimulus tax dollar was spent correctly and was being used to put America to work.

I traveled extensively with Vice President Biden around the country making announcements about grants to cities and states for projects to put Americans to work and to make our economy strong with jobs and a boost to businesses. I saw up close and first hand Vice President Biden’s extraordinary leadership and management skills in making sure the stimulus money was spent correctly and properly. Americans should be proud that Joe Biden made sure that with every dollar allocated there were no boondoggles, no sweetheart deals and no earmarks. There were no negative or bad stories written about how the money was spent.

Vice President Biden was instrumental in providing leadership with President Obama to pass major health care for Americans. He is committed to working with the career health professionals to find a vaccine for coronavirus and provide the American people a level of confidence to reduce the number of deaths from coronavirus.

America needs leadership to get our economy moving. America needs leadership to make America healthy again. Joe Biden has shown leadership in rebuilding the economy and shown leadership in working with Congress to provide affordable health care for all Americans. Joe Biden has the experience and knowledge to lead America. He has the proven track record.

Remember the late and great Georgia Congressman John Lewis who encouraged the discourse and who urged America TO VOTE! He would say often that voting was one of the greatest change actions in our democracy. So please exercise your most important responsibility as a citizen of our great country and vote! As a life-long Republican, I intent to vote for Joe Biden for President as I believe he will provide the leadership and experience to change America!