Which doctor do you want at your bedside?

If a person admits himself to the hospital complaining of chest pains, and the emergency room doctor concludes he is having a heart attack, is the doctor “spreading fear” by giving him a “dark” diagnosis? Of course not. He is presenting the facts, along with the promise that he and the hospital staff will do everything they can to save the patient’s life.

This is exactly the scenario presented in Donald Trump’s speech at the GOP convention — a speech in which he diagnosed the state of America’s economic health. Yes, it was not pleasant to hear, much less accept, and many low information voters will opt for Hillary’s fluffier solution to the economic misery that has intensified for America over the past eight years. But clear minded voters need to consider if it is really in our best interest to accept and vote for Trump’s sobering, fact based economic diagnosis or Clinton’s opinion that our national economic woes are merely a case of mild heartburn that will be easily cured by substituting a different flavor of Tums than President Obama has used during his two terms in office.

Here are the facts that support Trump’s accurate diagnosis of America’s economic health, according to the U.S. Census Bureau, the latest Pew report, and various other economic watchdog agencies. If you take issue with these facts, please cite your sources and prove me wrong — don’t waste editorial space accusing me of a “sky is falling” mentality without facts to the contrary.

Fact: One out of every five U.S. families do not have a single household member who is employed.

Fact: For the first time in American history, more businesses are being destroyed every day than are being created.

Fact: Know why the president seldom boasts about the low unemployment rate? It’s because he knows the low rate is based upon the fact that 93 million Americans have given up looking for work and are no longer counted as unemployed. Hence the artificially low rate.

Fact: Food stamp use under President Obama is up by 43 percent. In fact, the number of new food stamp recipients under this president is three times higher than job recipients.

Fact: The president likes to boast of the over four million new jobs created under his watch. He neglects to mention the over 13 million Americans who have been added to the food stamp rolls during his tenure. And still we are besieged by commercials begging us to feed the 1 in 6 American children who are “fighting hunger every day.”

Fact: The myth persists that the Democrats are the ones who look out for the little guy, young people and minorities. Really? Check out the black and youth unemployment figures under Obama’s watch. More young adult Americans are living with parents than at any other time since the Great Depression of the 30s. And since the president made the student loan industry a federal program, 43 percent of the student loan borrowers now are making no loan repayments.

Fact: And are you aware that the middle class has shrunk in 90 percent of U.S. cities? Pew reports that for the first time in almost 50 years, the middle class is no longer the largest economic class in America. Pew describes the middle class as “disappearing.” It has sunk into the lower class.

Fact: The “takers” now greatly outnumber the “makers.” There are 70 percent more Americans collecting entitlement checks than working in the private sector, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.

Fact; The Fed just announced a second quarter GDP of a dismal 1.2 percent. Barack Obama is the first president in American history to preside over seven straight years of GDP growth under 3 percent, including the Great Depression of the 30s.

Fact: But at least everyone has affordable healthcare, right? Alas, Obamacare is sinking, too. Thirteen of the 23 Obamacare state exchanges have failed — gone broke and disappeared. The remaining 10 have losses of over $200 million annually. Not to fear. One of Hillary’s proposals is to eliminate private healthcare plans altogether and create the same government system that our veterans now “enjoy.” A vote for Hillary is a vote for VA health care for all Americans.

Since Hillary Clinton is clueless about all President Obama’s economic failures and has promised to continue his same “successful” policies, we can expect the same possibility of economic success that Obama has given us, can’t we? Yes, Trump is sometimes rude and crude, with a terrible bedside manner. But which would you rather have for our country’s economic heart attack — a gruff but proven heart surgeon or a soothing, smiling Tums dispenser?

This story was originally published August 1, 2016 at 9:00 PM with the headline "Which doctor do you want at your bedside?."