The midterms are less than a week away and their outcome will determine America’s future

Has the GOP earned the right to maintain power in the House and Senate, or is it time for the Democrats to take control?

Here are some of the positives that have come about from Republican control:

1..Closing the border.

2…Stopping Medicaid payments to illegal immigrants.

3…Ending federal payments for sterilizing children through sex change operations for minors.

4…Forcing NATO allies to pay their fair share.

5…Promoting more drilling and pipelines to once again make us energy independent.

6…Fighting DEI policies that discriminate against Asians at universities or promote quotas in the boardroom and various American institutions?

7…Preserving the 2017 tax cuts, which prevented a $2,000 tax increase on the average American middle class family. It also limits taxes on tips, overtime and social security.

8…Hitting Iran’s nuclear stockpile, pushing back their ability to construct nuclear weapons, while weakening its terrorist capabilities via the economic blockade.

9…Threatening tariffs on various nations that engage in unfair trade policies, thereby opening their markets to American exports.(See below for the negatives on this.)

10…Forcing pharmaceutical companies to ensure American consumers pay no more than European consumers and buying prescription drugs.

11…Forcing the deportation of 1.5 million illegal aliens, either by affirmatively deporting them or encouraging self deportation, thereby helping reduce the crime rate in America to its one of its lowest levels ever, and reducing rents in areas where deportations were plentiful.

12…Taking control in Memphis and Washington DC to prove that utilizing law enforcement properly can dramatically improve public safety and quality of life.

13…Exposing massive fraud in various federal programs, including learning centers in Minneapolis, hospice centers in California and Medicaid theft in New York, to name a few.

14…Ridding the military of its woke obsession and in return having the largest increase in recruitment in recent military history.

15…Taking on the drug cartels and significantly reducing the amount of fentanyl, crossing the border and killing Americans.

16…Promoting savings accounts for children, thereby creating a potential for compounded growth and future prosperity.

17…Bringing back the concept of workfare as established in the Clinton administration, requiring able-bodied recipients of Medicaid to work a minimum number of hours each month.

18…Fighting back against the virulent anti-semitism the Marxist/Islamist coalition pursued on American campuses.

The not so good aspects of the last two years under Trump and GOP control:

1…Inconsistent tariff policies that created uncertainty, volatility, and ultimately blunted efforts to further reduce the inflation level.(They would have been much more effective if implemented gradually and nation specific.)

2…Concentrating on extraneous issues from ball rooms, to reflecting pools, to a new arch d’Trump, thereby creating a perception of being tone deaf on the affordability issue.

3…Doing little to nothing to control the deficit or the national debt.

4…Again failing to produce a unified GOP health care alternative to Obamacare,

5…Initiating redistricting in the middle of the ten year census cycle.

6…Seeking to ban disloyal press from briefings.

7…Lavishing praise on the strongmen who represent our military foes, from Russia’s Putin, to China’s Xi, to North Korea’s Kim, while needlessly humiliating our allies in Canada and Denmark to name a few.

8…Not laying a proper predicate with the American people or our allies upon waging a very justifiable military action against Iran. The American people would be willing to sacrifice paying higher gas prices if they were convinced it was to protect our homeland from Iran hitting us with nukes.

9… Accepting a new Air Force One built by and donated from Qatar.

10…Buying oil from Russia after prodding Europe not to.

The choice we have.

That’s a whole bunch of negatives, but here’s the big question people must ponder:

If the affordability issue is top of mind for most Americans, why would we entrust the solution to the people who caused it?

While Trump didn’t end the inflation problem as promised, he didn’t create it. Inflation blew through the roof when the Biden administration used COVID as an excuse to dramatically increase government spending at levels that were not justified.

Certainly, there was reason to increase spending at the beginning of the pandemic to help shore up businesses that would be closed. But by January 2021, we had a vaccine, the market had stabilized, and businesses were starting to reopen. There was no need for trillions of additional dollars to be spent, but the left used COVID as an excuse to raise this money and to implement their nanny state agenda. That included bailing out the deficits of Obamacare, pouring billions of dollars into leftist not for-profit groups, and implementing a radical GreenNew Deal.

The federal budget went from $4 1/2 trillion to over $7 trillion, which is now the new normal. That massive spending devalued the dollar, leading to 20% inflation in Biden‘s term. Interest rates spiked due to that spending, which is why people can’t afford homes. Importing 15 million immigrants placed pressure on rents.

Republicans closed the border. If Democrats regain control, they will open it again.

Republicans allowed for the harvesting of domestic gas and oil, which will bring prices down once the temporary increases from the Iran war dissipate.

Democrats will go back to their extremist green policies that make these high oil and electric prices the new normal.

Republicans are uncovering massive amounts of fraud in Medicaid, daycare and welfare programs. Democrats will go back to looking the other way.

Republicans cut taxes for seniors, working people and the average American family

(to the tune of $2,000), but Democrats have pledged to reverse those cuts.

Republicans are pushing back against the Marxist/Islamic coalition, while this radical movement has now consumed the Democratic Party.

Much of the president's low approval stems from his rough, intemperate personality, and his inconsistencies on tariffs and Iran. We are not where we want to be right now, but do we really want to go back to the policies of the Biden administration, or to the socialists who will double down on it?

Steve Levy is President of Common Sense Strategies, a political consulting firm. He served as Suffolk County Executive, as a NYS Assemblyman, and host of the “On the Right Side Podcast." He is the author of “Solutions to America’s Problems” and “Bias in the Media.” www.SteveLevy.info, steve@commonsensestrategies.com.