Which President’s U.S. economy is/was better: Obama’s or Trump’s?
If you’re not careful with your answer to that question, it could get you into a fight. There is little question that today’s U.S. economy is better than it was. But there are so many variables that factor into the “definition of a good economy,” there is no absolutely correct answer.
Of course, if you do a Google search on the internet for “Is Trump’s economy better than Obama’s?” You’ll see two pages of stories that poo any such claims. Most all of them include this or a similar disclaimer: “Today’s economic numbers cannot be claimed as Trump’s. Remember that Obama took over a sluggish economy in the middle of a serious economic downturn. Obama began economic policies that started economic reforms throughout the nation that are still in place and responsible for this economy today.”
Every one of those stories is from Leftist media sources or media organizations that are outwardly anti-Trump. Don’t forget that most economists who are “reputable” (or claim to be) are professors, other educators, or are part of think tanks that are almost totally tied to liberal universities and/or organizations.
Like Robert Reich: economist in several presidential administrations including a long stint as Secretary of Labor under President Clinton. In the national uproar about Trump’s tax cuts and how they positively impacted the lives of most Americans, Mr. Reich weighed in:
But almost in total, hard facts and results prove Mr. Reich to be dead wrong. He drew all his statistics he calls “facts” from that U.S. Government “never-been-wrong” Congressional group titled “The Congressional Research Service,” who said this: 1. The tax cuts were a total bust. They did not spur economic growth with little or no growth in their first year; 2. They didn’t raise wages; 3. They didn’t cause corporations to bring offshore profits back to the U.S.; 4. Corporate profits did not increase as projected so there were no significant increased corporate tax payment increases; 5. Corporations did NOT take excess profits to give raises to any workers other than supervisors and above. You saw and heard that from Mr. Reich. The only way to put it is He’s wrong! Let’s quickly respond to his five “facts.”
- Just the “news” of the tax cuts spurred hundreds of billions of new dollars flooding the U.S. marketplace. Corporations with no government prodding paid massive employee bonuses, announced new hiring, pay raises, corporate domestic expansions and factory additions. GDP climbed steadily. However, pundits knowing GDP does not sit in a vacuum used that fact to confuse average Americans. “The U.S. Economy” does not exist in a vacuum either and is a measure of broad economic improvements — which the nation has unquestionably seen and that are growing every month. Government revenue has grown steadily since Trump’s election, as much as $500 billion annually in spite of reduced taxes to Americans and corporations!
- Raises HAVE gone up and not just for managers. Working-class Americans are benefiting in such a way that their salaries are increasing faster than those of their bosses, under the booming economy of President Donald Trump. The salaries of these workers registered increases of 4.5% between November 2018 and November 2019, while the salaries of the 25% of the highest salaried workers increased by 2.9%, according to data from the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta.
- Corporations have brought massive amounts of corporate profits back to the U.S. How much? According to Bloomberg News — not a conservative news outlet and certainly not supporters of Donald Trump — $1 trillion dollars at the end of 2019!
- Corporations have not had higher profits so there were no significant corporate tax payments. Wanna hear the truth?
“Corporate profits in the United States rose by $11.2 billion, or 0.6 percent, to $1.869 trillion in the third quarter of 2019, following a 3.7 percent increase in the previous period. Undistributed profits advanced by $18.4 billion, or 3.6 percent to $529.1 billion and net cash flow with inventory valuation adjustment, the internal funds available to corporations for investment climbed by $40 billion, or 1.7 percent to $2.4442 trillion. Corporate Profits in the United States averaged $494.46 Billion from 1950 until 2019, reaching an all-time high of $1.8748 trillion in the third quarter of 2018 and a record low of $14.67 billion in the first quarter of 1951.”
- Corporations went far and above any expectations of bonuses primarily for workers, pay increases, increased corporate payments to IRA, 401k and other investment accounts. And these fly in the face of folks like Mr. Reich and his claims. There are far too many to enumerate here. So you can click the link below to see a .pdf of 900 such actions taken by companies that have already totaled hundreds of billions of dollars to American workers.
https://truthnewsnet.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/12/The-Trump-Show.pdf
There are plenty of naysayers just like Reich out there who scream as loudly as possible that the economy is bad, for no other reason than to try to prevent the President from having a victory. How sad is that?
But that brings us to a really important question:
Is Our Economy Really Good?
There are six facts that tell you how the U.S. economy is doing. Economists call them “leading economic indicators” because they measure the early influencers on growth. In October 2019, they report that the economy is faltering slightly. It has slightly slower growth, low unemployment, and inflation is below target. But it’s still almost a “Goldilocks economy” because it’s neither too hot nor too cold.
I. 266,000 Jobs Added In November 2019: Strong
II. Stock Market Is Setting New Records: Healthy
III. In Third Quarter 2019, GDP Growth Was 2.1% = Good
IV. Durable Goods Orders Fell 1.1% in September 2019 = Low
V. Core Inflation Was 2.4%: At Target
VI. When Interest Rates Remain Stable = Healthy
Summary
Remember those screaming from the mountaintops even before President Trump was elected that the stock market would crash with a Trump election? There were those that even warned of a massive worldwide financial panic that would destroy the economies of our partners in Europe, Southeast Asia, and even that of China! It’s odd that none of these have shown back up on talk shows or written columns in which they apologize for being wrong. In fact, several have even doubled-down.
Charles Payne — an economics specialist on FOX Business — said this the other day: “It has been uncanny to watch and listen to economic pundits continue their dire projections of pending financial doom for the U.S. The problem is, most in their lifetimes have not seen any sustained growth in the U.S. economy akin to what they see today. Why haven’t they seen it before? Because it hasn’t happened in their lifetimes!”
In spite of all the whining, all the financial nuclear devastation warnings, and the continued predictions of the “imminent crash of the Stock Market,” our economy continues to grow at healthy rates. And it’s not just happening in the Stock Market: inflation is low, unemployment at record lows, more people employed than ever before, every worker in each employment sector is seeing their unemployment drop to record levels, incomes are climbing, corporate profits and subsequent tax payments are soaring. Financial pundits are gnashing their teeth at all this, actually praying for the U.S. economy to fail!
HBO’s “Real Time” host Bill Maher admitted that he hopes the American economy will crash so that President Donald Trump will be voted out of office! Think about the hatred that must be in Mr. Maher’s heart. That anyone could actually wish the entire U.S. economy would fail, result in a recession, solely for the purpose of seeing this president — ANY president — voted out of office is unfathomable to most Americans. Think of the financial devastation for tens of millions of Americans that would result from such a recession. But that’s just how much they hate Donald Trump.
Will this economy remain this strong? What’s ahead for the U.S. financially? Is there a looming recession?
The answer to each of those questions is simple: “I don’t know.” And, further, “No One Knows!”
Fortunately, this economy is not soaring as it is just by accident. This president as a very successful businessman saw long before entering politics the structural changes that were needed to spur our economy back to steady growth. And either through legislation (his tax corporate and personal cuts), executive action (termination of stifling regulations), or just the confidence Americans have in a president that actually fulfills the campaign promises he made rather than just ignoring them, Mr. Trump has us headed in the right direction.
And if his opposition is prevented from destroying all the processes he put in place that resulted in these improvements, we’re headed to another great year.
That’s the reason why they want him gone! He’s messing with their candy jar!
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