Re “Spinning yarns” (Our Views, Dec. 23): Does President Donald Trump embellish? Of course. While it seems the piece conceded that the $1,776 warrior dividend is a welcome “Big Beautiful Bill” initiative, “faltering financial conditions” and that “disastrous policies have roiled the economy” are also mentioned.
How is that? The U.S. median household income has risen to more than $80,000 a year — an all-time high. Every income group (including the bottom 25%) are wealthier today than ever before. Incomes are rising faster than inflation. The economy grew at an annualized rate of 4.3% in the third quarter, topping expectations by a full percentage point. Gas prices are down, the stock market has reached all-time highs this year, interest rates are lower and large tax refunds could be sent next year. Additionally, the federal budget deficit has decreased by roughly 2% in 2025 and is already down by another $170 billion in the first two months of fiscal year 2026 despite tax cuts.
I believe Trump’s common sense economic, financial and energy policies are working. It is hard to know why public opinion doesn’t seem particularly positive. It could be that too many are falling for the relentless negative media coverage of the administration.
It has been a pretty good year and 2026 could be even better. So join the party and we can all have a happy new year.
Mike Dewey, Williamsburg
Better deal
I have tried to square New York City Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani’s socialistic popularity with my belief that capitalism beats socialism.
A big portion of our country struggles, illustrating our enormous inequality of income and wealth. That leads me to Elon Musk’s $1 trillion Tesla pay deal.
I believe it is not in the public interest to allow an individual to have such wealth (see R.H. Tawney). Society gets little benefit from this but risks that money and power will lead to inefficiency and greed, sometimes referred to as crony capitalism. Musk’s DOGE seems to fit the bill.
Our country would be better off if some of the big tax cuts for those already rich were transferred into benefits for the working poor.
The bottom quarter of us needs a better deal. Wages grow slower than capital, so the vicious circle perpetuates itself and the poor get poorer while the rich get richer.
There is an incorrect caricature of the working poor as lazy and gaming the system. This is true of some, but most work several jobs and play by the rules.
Such wealth disparity creates social instability and political polarization.
A decline in civility and increase in violence could be explained by the fact that some have to grovel for health care.
We might need a paradigm shift, but not one based on free stuff. We need one based on market principles.
Paul English, Chesapeake
Iconic words
Some things just need to be reemphasized and restated in the new year. Former President Theodore “Teddy” Roosevelt’s “Man in the Arena” 1910 speech is one of those. It remains idealistic and iconic for so many of us.
“It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena … who spends himself in a worthy cause … and who at worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat,” Roosevelt said.
Our debt to the heroic men and women who serve our country can never be repaid. America will never forget their sacrifices. Four things support the world: the learning of the wise, the justice of the great, the prayers of the good and the valor of the brave.
John L. Horton, Norfolk