President Donald Trump and Democratic challenger Joe Biden presented their ideas for the future of this country last night.
COVID-19 and economic recovery were the main focus of two competing town hall events with the presidential candidates. When asked about his handling of the coronavirus, which has spread heavily in rural America over the past three weeks, President Donald Trump said the administration is supporting hospitals.
“We had the greatest economy we ever had,” the President said. “We had to close it down, we saved 2 million lives. We opened it up, we have a “v” shape, and it’s coming back. And one other thing: We’ve really helped the hospitals. We’ve sent billions and billions of dollars to the hospitals in addition to hundreds of millions of masks and gowns, and we went into the ventilator business because this country wasn’t equipped with ventilators.""
Democratic canididate Joe Biden said more funding is needed to fight the virus. “You can contain the pandemic by being rational and not trusting the economy,” Biden said. “For example, I laid out a plan on how you can open businesses. You can open businesses and schools if you provide them the guidance they need as well as the money to be able to do it.”
A recent DTN/Progressive Farmer survey found the economy to be the top concern among rural Americans. President Trump says his tax cuts support job creation.
“So, whats happening is they are coming in because we reduced the taxes,” Trump asserted. “Our corporate taxes were the highest in the world, and now they are among the lower taxes – they aren’t the lowest but among the lowest – and what that means is jobs. And also what we are doing and have done is a very big middle income tax package.”
Biden says increasing corporate taxes would stimulate even more growth. “Moodys did a detailed analysis of my tax plan and my economic plan. They said in 4 years I will create 18.6 million new jobs – good payin jobs, Number 1. Number 2, the GDP will grow by a trillion dollars more than it would under Trump, and 7 million more jobs than under Trump.”
President Trump did not specifically mention agriculture during his town hall event, but Biden brought up green energy and conservation agriculture.
“We should be taking the plan where we allow significantly more land be put into conservation, with the deep roots of plants that absorb carbon from the air, and pay farmers to do it,” Biden said. " We can do things like pelletize all the chicken manure and all the horse manure and cow manure, and take out the methane and use it as fertilizer – and make a lot of money doing it.”
The candidates are set to take to the stage again for another debate next Thursday.