<p>Too many folks are denying reality to push a purely political agenda. It is time for all you deniers to face the facts and admit that you are … and have been … terribly wrong – even dishonest.</p>
<p>Oh! I am not talking about climate change. No. No. No. I am talking about the American economy and your refusal to admit that it is roaring along quite impressively. You’re continuing to deny that reality – and your efforts to convince the American public that the economy sucks – is damaging and dangerous.</p>
<p>Unwittingly, you could create enough Chicken Little-type fear that it would hurt the economy. In the extreme, you could create a psychological atmosphere that might lead to a bit of a recession. And maybe that is not unwitting.</p>
<p>Perhaps many of you are following the not-so-entertaining entertainer, Bill Maher, who is a-hopin’ and a-prayin’ for a recession in order to defeat President Trump in the next election – regardless of the millions of Americans who would be harmed. Talk about putting party politics ahead of the nation. If that does not work, maybe folks like Maher will start a-hopin’ and a-prayin’ for more deadly hurricanes or even mass shootings. Whatever it takes to get Trump out of office.</p>
<p>It seems you cannot turn to any news service – especially those serving as the communications vehicles for today’s left-wing Democratic Party – without having some politician, reporter or “contributor” tell we the people how only the rich benefited from the tax cut and the rest of us are suffering from lack of money for basic needs. They claim we need three jobs to survive. According to them, the economy is on the brink of recession. All that is just to scare us into a recession. And all that is hugely untrue.</p>
<p>They may cry out that the sky is falling every time the stock market takes a small dip – yes small. They try to convince us that a two percent drop is something akin to the 1929 crash. Okay, that is a bit hyperbolic, but you get the point.</p>
<p>Yes, the stock market goes up and down. That is what it does. But it has been fluctuating in the range of record highs – and is currently only 4 percent below the record high. The Trump policies of tax cuts and deregulation are the reasons. The millions of people with stock-based retirement plans have been doing very well in the Trump economy.</p>
<p>But it is not just stock. In fact, stock prices are not the best indicator of a good or bad economy because it also fluctuates up and down in times of recession – and often rises in recessions because corporate profits improve when there are significant layoffs. Stocks are all about profits.</p>
<p>That big dip in the market that was given sooooo much negative spin in terms of the Trump economy – and blamed on the President’s trade policies &#8212; has basically recovered even though he has threatened even more tariffs.</p>
<p>While there is little more room for job creation with unemployment around 3.7 percent – which most economists consider “full employment” – the shortage of workers is pushing up wages. The less-than-a-living-wage income levels that marked the initial years of the recovery from 2008 are ebbing with higher paying full-time jobs.</p>
<p>Democrats claim that the modest drop in job creation – currently running around 165,000 per month – is a negative sign. When the nation is as at virtual full-employment, job creation tends to slow down because there are not enough workers to take jobs. That is why we NEED immigrants to come to America (legally) – as Trump has said. (And yes, he has repeatedly and specifically stated that we need a flow of immigrants to expand the workforce – regardless of their ethnic background. Claiming that Trump is anti-immigration and a racist is another bogus political narrative advanced by the left and echoed by their media allies.)</p>
<p>Another measure of the health of the economy is consumer confidence. It is currently at an all-time high. It is reflected in another measure.</p>
<p>One of the all-important indicators of a strong economy is disposable income – that money people use to buy things. That is up due to higher wages and lower taxes. So far in 2019, spending has grown by a very healthy 6 percent – with July reaching 8 percent. This puts the lie to the claim that the tariffs are significantly impacting on income and spending.</p>
<p>China is suffering far worse in the trade war since the potential consumer price increases have not yet been realized on the American side. When the Democrats talk about the price increases, they are talking theory … potential … not current reality. Unfortunately, China – as an authoritarian regime – can let its economy and people suffer to a greater degree.</p>
<p>As much as I am a free-trader, I see no other short-term solution that can eventually and effectively end China’s trade abuses, money manipulation and the purloining of trillions of dollars of intellectual property. It is a fight that must be won – and if it means more TEMPORARY tariffs, so be it.</p>
<p>Virtually every tax-paying American has benefited from the tax cut. In terms of personal income taxes, the average American has done a bit better percentage-wise than those dreadful one-percenters. Democrats conflate the cut in corporate income taxes as cuts benefiting the rich. In fact, a cut in corporate taxes is a reduction in prices that benefit all consumers.</p>
<p>Remember … corporations never pay the taxes. They pass that cost on to the consumer. A corporate tax increase is paid by you and me – and it is regressive since the price increases hit hardest on the poor. The cut in corporate taxes is one of the reasons for the job growth.</p>
<p>For sure, there has been a modest slowdown in the economy in the past month, but hardly a recession. It is a little like reducing your highway speed from 80 to 70 miles-per-hour. You are still moving along at a pretty good clip.</p>
<p>No matter how you look at it. No matter to whom you want to give credit. The American economy is booming. And if all you economic doomsayers would just quit scaring the children, it would even be better – but I guess the only thing that motivates you folks more than a good economy for we the people is a useful crisis – real or invented – that will hurt President Trump.</p>
<p>So, there ‘tis.</p>