For Your Consideration
Mike Lowry
Normally this time of year, columnists write about the previous year so let me look at 2025 and how it might have been if the Harris-Walz team had been elected instead of the Trump-Vance team.
The Trump tax cuts, from his first election, would have expired. The Harris-Walz team showed no interest in extending those earlier Trump tax cuts so Americans would have experienced one of the largest tax increases in history. Also, the no tax on tips, no tax on overtime, positive changes regarding Social Security taxation and other breaks would not have happened. Americans, particularly those in low or middle incomes, would be paying far more in federal taxes.
America would be left with the continued open border of the Biden-Harris administration. The more than 20 million that entered the country would continue to grow in number along with the number of unaccompanied alien children (UAC), Today, due the results of the Trump administration, illegal entry by illegal aliens and UAC has dropped to near zero at a great saving to the taxpayers. But equally important and tragic, the Biden-Harris administration border crisis left over 233,000 unaccompanied children without proper legal oversight and vulnerable to exploitation. Many of these children were taken by supposedly family members or family friends who listed false or non-existent addresses and current location of the UAC’s whereabouts is unknown.
Fortunately, the Department of Homeland Security, the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), and Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) have located more than 29,143 or over 10 percent of the unaccompanied migrant children considered to be in the most danger during 2025 and have expanded efforts to locate even more of these minors.
The ICE agents have been condemned as “Gestapo,” “terrorists” and similar insults by Democrat officials and critics for doing the job called for by federal law to enforce the nation’s immigration laws —immigration laws that were largely ignored and would have probably continued to have been ignored by the Biden-Harris administration.
Besides rounding up and deporting illegal immigrants convicted of crimes, had deportation orders being ignored, international gang members or having violated U.S. law being illegally being in the country, ICE and Border Patrol agents are finally enforcing the long existing immigration laws.
Barack Obama’s administration deported more immigrants than any other president in the last three decades. It carried out 2,749,706 deportations in eight years, an average of 942 per day. During Obama’s first term (20092012), it averaged 1,088 per day; in the second term (2013-2016), the daily average dropped to 794 due to the large number of illegals already removed.
Between January and June 2025, Donald Trump’s administration carried out 128,039 deportations, averaging 810 per day, fewer than in the years with the highest deportations under Obama.
Under Trump, arrests particularly targeted illegals with criminal or terrorist ties while Obama administration went after those ignoring deportation orders, over staying visas, or just i llegally i n t he c ountry. D uring t he Obama administration one can find few Democrats critical of ICE agents or calling them “Gestapo” or similar insults.
Besides illegal immigrant continuing in a Harris-Walz administration, it can be assumed eight wars ended by the Trump administration would still be waging from small regional long ongoing battles to more dangerous wars with potential international ramifications such as the case of the war between Pakistan and India, two nuclear powers with large populations and on the border of Communist China.
The Israel-Palestine battle would be continuing and possibly expanding to other neighboring countries. Harris, facing strong opposition to Israel from her party’s large leftwing fringe, would probably do little beyond condemning Israel and ignore the fact the war began after a sneak attack on Israel, leaving thousands of dead, injured or taken prisoner. Efforts to expand the Abraham Accords and similar efforts to finally bring peace to the Mideast would be left to die as they had strong ties to the first Trump administration.
Russia at war with the Ukraine would continue without let up with Russia seeing Harris, like they did Biden, as weak. Russia would note the American military was unable to meet recruiting or retention goals and the Harris administration to react more like Obama did back when Russia first invaded and took the eastern part of the Ukraine, and the Obama administration response was to simply send blankets and Meals Ready to Eat (MRE’s) to Ukraine.
Trump, in his first term when Russia expanded their aggression, sent anti-tank and other weapons to the Ukraine forces. He got, in his first term, NATO nations to actually live up to their military financial obligations and in second term got them to increase their obligation to NATO and support more strongly Ukraine. Thus, allowing Ukraine to go on the offensive against Russia and not just remain on the defense.
Would that have again happened under President Harris? Or in the case, of Iran, would she have ordered taking out of the nuclear bomb development Trump did or would she, like Obama did, sent pallets containing billions in American and European currency as a bribe to beg Iran not continue development of a nuclear weapon?
Would the U.S. economy be stronger, recruitment for our armed forces up, and the chance for ending wars been greater under a Harris-Walz administration — doubtful!
Would the Harris inflation have seen an increase even higher than the 9 percent inflation experienced under the Biden administration? Would the Harris-Walz administration be able to cut government employment and spending to bring inflation down to around the 2 percent level we are not experiencing?
Would we still be seeing deaths from drugs continue to climb as we did with the continued open border policy and playing defense of trying to simply arresting low level drug pushers of the Biden administration policy continue under a Harris administration? Would the Harris-Walz administration instead be literally taking out those trying to smuggle their killing drugs into our country as the Trump administration has and seeing the “drug war” as truly a war as more than a campaign slogan?
Would the fraud now being uncovered in Minnesota have been covered up by a Harris-Walz administration?
We can only speculate on what might have been based on the failed candidate’s statements and her role in the previous administration but thinking about what might have been can give us a better insight into what the current administration and Congress have done and maybe doing in the future.
Some thoughts for your consideration. My best wishes for a truly happy new year.
