By Nancy Thorner & Ed Ingold -
This article demanded to be written as an addendum to our article published at Illinois Review on Monday, January 1, 2018, Day of Reckoning for GOP Tax Bill Naysayers, over the anger felt over Democrats repeating the same false claims out of obedience to Schumer and loyalty to Obama. If you only manage to climb halfway out of a well, you haven’t accomplished much.
Democrats have established a mantra that Trump’s success in stimulating the economy should be credited to Obama, that Obama created 11 million jobs and doubled the Dow Jones Industrial average. This is misleading at best. What follows will prove the false and misleading mantra of Democrats who are attempting to prop up Obama's failed presidency.
False Claims by Democrats
The DJI index did indeed double from 7000 in 2009 to 14,000 in 2013 under Obama, but only if you consider the huge dip in 2009 (just after he took office). In fact, it took six years for the DJI to reach the value it held in 2008. The index stood at about 18,000 when President Trump was elected in November of 2017 and began to rise consistently thereafter. It topped 26,000 last week, which means the economy improved more in one year under Trump than 8 years under Obama. Most of gains under president Obama were due to massive printing of new money by the Federal Reserve. This decreased interest rates to near zero, making the stock market the only way for investors to make money. Yes, companies profited, but only by paring their employees and inventory to the bone.
Consider also that under president Trump GDP growth exceeded 3% for the first three quarters, but never exceeded 2.5% under Obama. The Democrats' claim that the GDP reached 3% eight times during the Obama administration is likewise misleading. Monthly values are highly misleading due to random variations. Under Obama, the monthly GDP fluctuated wildly, from -5% to 5%, while they have been fairly steady under Trump. here is a good likelihood that GDP growth will exceed 4% by the end of Trump’s second year in office, due to reduction in the corporate tax rate from 39% down to 21%, and the elimination of many business-killing regulations. That should make the Fall elections interesting. Reagan lost Congress in his first mid-term election, but he didn’t reach his stride until his last year in office
Obama and his Democrat cronies likewise claim to have “created” 11 million jobs, however, these gains were nearly all in the service industry. Nearly 3 million industrial jobs were lost under Obama, compared to 219.000 thousand new high-paying jobs that are projected to be added under President Trump. Additionally, the same number of service jobs created under Obama (10.5 million) are projected under President Trump.
Regarding Jobs data, by its very nature it is confusing and largely unlovable as data does not include those who are unemployed but not looking any longer. Data is also “adjusted” for seasonal employment and by undisclosed methods.
Democrats Malign Corporate Mogul as Beneficiaries
Heard over and over again by Democrats even before the tax bill was signed by President Trump is how all the savings in Trump’s tax bill would go directly into the pockets of the corporate moguls. That’s not too surprising. Democrats knew this stupidity would be picked up by the lapdog media thus insuring that the pending legislation was presented in a bad light. What is remarkable is that even after the bill’s passage, Democrats and the lapdog media kept repeating their lies, even after several major corporations had bestowed sizeable celebratory bonuses on thousands of their employees.
Far from being arch villains, as portrayed by the likes of Pelosi, Schumer and the fake news media, when companies and corporations prosper, so does nearly everyone else. That would include not only the workers and potential workers seeking employment, but retirees and those whose pensions, present and future, depend on the solvency of those companies to fund those pensions. And not to be overlooked are the millions of Americans personally invested in the Stock Market through their IRAs or stock holdings. It’s no small thing that those people – most of whom are not millionaires and billionaires – have seen their investments grow, on average, 25% in the year since Donald Trump took office.
Those people, by the way, would definitely include the likes of Chuck Schumer, Nancy Pelosi, (Illinois' U.S. Senator) Dick Durbin, Dianne Feinstein, Elizabeth Warren and Maxine Waters, who aren’t among the despised and greatly envied one-percenters, but are definitely five or six-percenters.
Good News
Even though the record highs on Wall Street weren’t entirely predicated on the anticipated tax cuts, much of it was caused by Trump’s carrying through on his promise to eliminate the most onerous of Obama’s anti-business regulations.
Still, the passage of the tax bill should signal a blast-off for the U.S. economy. For the prior eight years, thanks to the axis of evil consisting of Obama, Pelosi and Harry Reid, the economy limped along at an annual growth rate of 1.9%. Over the past year, it has risen to 3.2%. We don’t think you have to be a Pollyanna or a fantasist to believe that 4% is well within reach.
This is all good news you will never hear on Mainstream Media.