Just as
The First Step Act is a necessary step toward giving our fellow citizens a second chance at redemption after serving their time in prison.
Besides that, just what has President Trump done for America in 2018?
Over the last year, American workers saw their largest nominal wage growth in nearly a decade. The economy has added nearly 4.5 million jobs since President Trump’s election, and at this very moment, there are a record 7.1 million job openings available to American workers. Even the New York Times, in a June article, admitted they had “run out of words to describe how good the jobs numbers are.”
We’re experiencing the lowest unemployment rate in 48 years, and the lowest African-American unemployment ever. More than 4.2 million Americans have stopped collecting food stamps since President Trump’s election. Thirty-three percent of Americans say they are financially better off this year compared to last year, according to an American Barometer poll.
In October 2018, consumer confidence hit the highest level since 2000, and it hasn’t waned much since. Greg Maloney, a contributor to Forbes magazine, wrote in a recent column, “It’s beginning to look a lot like the best holiday shopping season since, well, last year. … We went into this holiday season with one of the strongest underlying frameworks for the consumer that I can remember in some time.”
As CNBC finance editor Jeff Fox explained, “Trump’s economic program was very simple: an attack on taxes and regulations with an extra dose of spending on infrastructure and the military that would create a supply shock to a moribund economy.”
Indeed, in fiscal year 2018, President Trump eliminated 12 regulations for every new one, inspiring business investment and hiring. And as for the critics who claimed the U.S. couldn’t achieve 3 percent economic growth, well, the GDP has grown by 3 percent over the past four quarters, including 4.2 percent in Q2 and 3.5 percent in Q3.
In May, President Trump officially recognized Jerusalem as the
The same month, the president secured the release of three American detainees from North Korea, and a month later, he became the first sitting U.S. president to meet with a North Korean head of state. (President Trump convinced Kim Jong Un to return the remains of U.S. soldiers who died in the Korean War, and to commit to denuclearization.)
Back on the homefront, the president replaced our outdated trade deals and held countries like China to task for their unfair trade practices. At our southern border, the number of apprehensions went up from the previous year, and border patrol agents seized an astounding 332 pounds of fentanyl and 10,382 pounds of methamphetamine from Oct. 1, 2017, to Aug. 31 of this year.
President Trump has authorized our trade delegates to renegotiate outdated trade agreements. He put Chinas and our other international trade partners on notice that the U.S. will hold them accountable for their theft of intellectual property, punitive tariffs and unfair trade practices.
President Trump also kept his promise to protect our Constitution with his judicial nominations, and the confirmation of Justice Brett Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court was just the capstone. With the confirmation of 29 federal circuit court judges and a grand total of 84 federal judges at all levels, the president broke a record for the number of confirmed judges by the end of a president’s second year in office.
After years of dangerous sequestration, President Trump secured $716 billion to meet our national security needs through the National Defense Authorization Act. This included a much-deserved 2.6 percent pay raise for our men and women in uniform — their first raise in nine years — and an increase of 15,600 troops across all branches of the military.
The president also proposed a new sixth branch of our armed forces — one that will propel our country toward space dominance: the U.S. Space Force.
President Trump also made history in the 2018 midterm elections, despite what the media may say. Since 1982, presidents have lost an average of five Senate seats in their first midterm elections. President Trump gained three.
2019 will be a battle, make no mistake. The only question now is that since the Democrats, the party of hate, bigotry, and division now have control of the House, just how far they will go attacking the ordinary people that only want a chance to live free and to chase the opportunities afforded by the United States of America.
Carla Jasper says
Excellent article. I appreciated this because it is factual and few have the will or the courage to tell the truth about our president. Thank you!
Slide Easy says
‘2019 will be a battle, make no mistake. The only question now is that since the Democrats, the party of hate, bigotry, and division now have control of the House, just how far they will go attacking the ordinary people that only want a chance to live free and to chase the opportunities afforded by the United States of America.’
Let The Games Begin………We The People have had enough of Liberal Democrats.
Christopher says
Ouch!
Deborah Bender says
Excellent article Wayne!
Joseph Francis Corcoran says
” Seek first to understand . Then try to be understood . ”
I did seek ; now I’ll try .
I got as far as the coma in the first sentence and agree that the Trump tax cut was historic ; literally historic . That is because it was not necessary in the midst of full employment , a steady 2.5% growth economy , record business profits and debt / GDP ratio of 104% .
The tax cut was primarily for the wealthiest and was financed by increased national debt . The tax cut was not financed by a stimulated economy as promised but by more debt . By 2019 the debt GDP ratio will be 108 % and rising dangerously .
We are now in a trade war with our largest trading partner and our farmers are feeling the pain . The administration ‘s solution is to dig the debt hole deeper to bail out the farmers .
That in a nutshell is your historicly ill-advised tax cut . The mounting debt is not sustainable . There will be he’ll to pay if action is not taken to reverse to shrink the debt .
Paul Plante says
Let’s see now, our national deficit is on the rise, the interest we have to pay on that debt, which is money taken away from the economy is on the rise, Wall Street just had its worst December since the Great Depression, the S&P 500 and Dow Jones Industrial Average were down 6.2 percent and 5.6 percent, respectively, for 2018 with both indexes posting their biggest annual losses since 2008, when they plunged 38.5 percent and 33.8 percent, respectively, and the Nasdaq Composite lost 3.9 percent in 2018, its worst year in a decade, when it dropped 40 percent.
And this morning, the first day of trading on Wall Street for the new year, CNBC presented us with this news under the heading “Dow futures slump more than 400 points as Chinese economic data disappoints” by Sam Meredith on 2 January 2018, as follows:
U.S. stock index futures pulled back on the first trading day of the new year, as more disappointing economic data from China hampered global risk appetite.
At around 4:00 a.m. ET on Wednesday morning, Dow futures fell 439 points, indicating a negative open of more than 476 points.
Futures on the S&P and Nasdaq were also seen relatively downbeat.
The moves in pre-market trade come after a private sector survey showed manufacturing activity in the world’s second-largest economy contracted for the first time in 19 months.
China’s Markit Manufacturing Purchasing Managers’ Index (PMI) for December dipped to 49.7 from 50.2 in November.
The weaker-than-expected data follows a poor official survey on factory output, compounding concerns about a possible economic slowdown this year.
Wall Street concluded trading in 2018 on Monday, with all major stock indexes registering their worst yearly performances since the financial crisis.
end quotes
Yes, indeed, the Trumpian economic miracle continues apace as he makes America great again like it was in the 1930s.
Let the good times roll!
Note: An econ 101 refresher may not be a bad New Year’s resolution.
Paul Plante says
I seriously doubt, however, as good as that advice is, that neither Trump nor any of his “economic advisers” will take heed of it, and they would do well, as well, to take the American history refresher course on the factors which caused the Great Depression, which Trump and team seem bent on repeating as they struggle to make America great by copying the economic policies of Calvin Coolidge in the 1920s, known as the “Roaring Twenties” to people in this country with working memories, a time in our history when a surging economy created an era of mass consumerism.
As to Trump making America great again by emulating Calvin Coolidge’s economic policies to usher in a new “Roaring Twenties” era for this millenium, the United States History website tells us that the 1920s era went by such names as the Jazz Age, the Age of Intolerance, and the Age of Wonderful Nonsense, and that under any moniker, the era embodied the beginning of modern America.
Watching American politics today, the Age of Wonderful Nonsense is once again a meaningful label for these times we now find ourselves in, or maybe it should just be “The Age of Nonsence.”
Getting back to the Roaring Twenties, numerous Americans felt buoyed up following World War I (1914-1918).
The close of World War I saw the United States recede into an inward-looking stance, just as it is again doing today.
Elected president in 1920, Warren G. Harding promoted a “return to normalcy,” which signaled a resurgence of nativism, isolationism, and rejection of the progressive era`s governmental activism.
Overall, Harding`s policies reflected a conservative, laissez-faire attitude.
His administration was blighted by scandals, but most of them did not surface until following his death of a stroke in office in August 1923.
One of the most notorious of them was the Teapot Dome Scandal, which appalled the public for years after Harding`s death.
And we think scandal associated with the Trump administration is something new in our history, when all he is doing is emulating Harding in that regard.
Calvin Coolidge was Harding`s vice president (1921-23), and when the presidency fell to his lot with Harding`s death, he moved swiftly to sew up the 1924 nomination and mend the effects of the administration`s scandals.
Coolidge was elected handily over Democrat John W. Davis and Progressive Robert M. La Follette.
He declined to run for reelection in 1929 and left politics for good.
Such Coolidge administration policies as high tariffs and federal tax cuts were generally approved of during his four years, but they would become unpopular during the next decade.
So what Trump is doing today with his tariffs and federal tax cuts is a direct copy of the economic policies of Coolidge.
Will he have better luck at it?
Any guesses, anyone?
In the meantime, all we can do is to hope that Trump will take that advice to take that econ 101 refresher course.
Paul Plante says
With respect to an econ 101 refresher course, as well as a modern American history review, in a NBC NEWS article entitled “Mnuchin and Powell won’t get axed, says White House economic adviser – Trump reportedly blames his Treasury secretary and Federal Reserve chairman for the recent steep market declines.” by Lucy Bayly on Dec. 26, 2018, it was stated thusly:
Despite Trump’s promise that Americans would “make a fortune” on the stock market under his watch, the Dow Jones Industrial Average is down 9 percent for the year.
end quotes
Why an American president would tell anyone they were going to make a fortune on his watch on the stock market frankly eludes me, as does the question of who would believe him and why, a question that could probably spawn a couple of hundred Ph.D’s in psychology and/or psychiatry in a search for a rational answer to that question.
Anyway, today the Dow was down 660.02 points at the close.
Is the fortune to be made right around the corner?
Or was that just a fleeting moment?
And as the headline implies, have the recent steep market declines.really been the fault of his Treasury secretary and Federal Reserve chairman?
Or are they simply handy scapegoats?
Stay tuned, America, as we wait with bated breath to see how that story is going to end.
Tim Parks says
This Domestic Terrorist organization known as the Democrat hates President Trump for the following reasons:
1. Lowest female unemployment in 18 years (06/06/18)
2. Unemployment at 3.8% equaling the lowest in 49 years (06/01/18)
3. Lowest youth unemployment in 52 years (08/16/18)
4. Lowest black unemployment ever at 5.9% (06/01/18)
5. Lowest Hispanic unemployment ever at 4.5% (08/03/18)
6. Over 3.4 million jobs saved or created
7. GDP at 4.2% (08/29/18)
8. Booming stock market (01/23/18)
9. Consumer confidence thrugh the roof (08/30/18)
10. Manufacturing growing at fastest pace in 14 years (09/04/18)
11. Lowest jobless claims in 49 years for 3 consecutive weeks (09/20/18)
12. Largest labor force ever with over 162.25 million (08/31/18)
13. Blue collar job growth at highest level in 34 years (09/09/18)
14. Record high 6.9 million new job openings (09/11/18)
15. Highest wage growth since the “great recession” (07/31/18)
16. Middle class income at all-time high (09/12/18)
17. Record low 12% cite Economic Issues as top 10 U.S. problem. (09/17/18)
18. Record high median Hispanic household income. (09/17/18)
19. S & P 500 at ALL TIME HIGH. (09/20/18)
20. Manufacturing confidence at all time high (10/05/18)
21. Unemployment at 3.7% equaling lowest since Dec. 1969 (10/05/18
22. Hispanic unemployment at 4.5% equaling lowest ever (10/05/18)
23. Record high 7.1 million job openings (10/16/18)
24.Ranked #1 competative country by World Economic Forum (10/16/18)
25. Record high business optimism, need for employees at 45 year high (11/13/18 )
26. Jobless claims at 49 year low (12/13/18)
Blue Hoss says
We have Muslims being sworn in on Korans. How can they possible swear to god to uphold our constitution. They do not believe in God. Then they get up on their first day and call our President a Mother_F_cker.
They are going to keep pushing until their ability to push is taken from them. I am appalled at this nation’s government and half it’s citizens. I am not alone.
Paul Plante says
But it’s no longer this nation’s government, Hoss.
At least not the House of Representatives, which has been turned into an ochlocracy by the Democrats under Nancy Pelosi.
An ochlocracy is another word for mobocracy, and in the case of impeaching Trump, it is also a synonym for a kangaroo court, or a lynch mob, which is what these rabid and vicious Democrats in the House of Representatives, many of them now representing foreign interests, such as the interests of the people of Somalia, who now have a representative in the House of Representatives, as do the Palestineans.
They are going to impeach Trump the way Gaius Cassius Longinus, Decimus Junius Brutus Albinus, and Marcus Junius Brutus impeached Julius Caesar back then.
Like ISIS destroyed history in Syria, our history as a nation is also going to be hammered flat and replaced with a whole new version, perhaps based on Sharia Law this time around.
And with respect to that, you obviously missed the memo from Nancy Pelosi, Hoss, telling us American people that a “NEW DAWN” has come to America and the old ways are dead, as we are told in an Associated Press article entitled “Pelosi sees ‘new dawn’ as diverse 116th Congress begins” by LISA MASCARO, AP Congressional Correspondent on 3 January 2019, as follows:
WASHINGTON — The 116th Congress gaveled into session Thursday, swathed in history as lawmakers returned Nancy Pelosi to the House speaker’s office and ushered in a diverse class of Democratic freshmen ready to confront President Donald Trump in a new era of divided government.
Pelosi, elected speaker 220-192, took the gavel saying voters opted for a “new dawn” in the November election and are looking to “the beauty of our Constitution” to provide checks and balances on power.
end quotes
As you recall, Hoss, the beauty of our Constitution was that it was supposed to be a salutory check on the propensity of the House of Representatives to yield to the impulse of sudden and violent passions, which it clearly has done, and to be seduced by factious leaders into intemperate and pernicious resolutions, which it now is.
And it obviously has failed us in that regard.
As that Associated Press article tells us Hoss, it’s now a time of stark national political division in the United States of America that some analysts say is on par with the Civil War era, and how the foreign interests who want to see us laid low as a nation and as a people are cheering that at the top of their lungs.
As to Nancy Pelosi changing the House rules on the wearing of headgear on the floor of the House of Representatives to appease the Muslims, this in a nation with a government that is not supposed to show favor to any religions, the United States House of Representative website tells us as follows concerning “The Ban on Hats on the House Floor – September 14, 1837,” to wit:
On this date, September 14, 1837, the House adopted a rule stipulating that no Member could wear a hat on the floor during a session of the House.
With virtually no debate, the rules were modified to read: “Every member shall remain uncovered during the sessions of the House.”
The change was anticlimactic considering—as Hinds Precedents reported—that earlier proposals to ban hats were “the fruit of a considerable agitation” before 1837.
In the institution’s early years, Representatives and guests in the galleries routinely donned their hats while the chamber was in session—a custom that hearkened to British Parliament.
In 1822, Charles F. Mercer of Virginia proposed banning the practice.
“Nor shall any Member remain in the Hall covered during the session of the House,” Mercer’s amendment read.
Mercer’s proposal failed.
Similar amendments went down to defeat on three other occasions when presented by different Representatives: George McDuffie of South Carolina in 1828, James K. Polk of Tennessee in 1833, and James Parker of New Jersey in 1835.
Polk’s 1833 proposal “to provide that the members should sit in the House uncovered, unless under special leave of the Speaker,” caused a lively debate.
Echoing earlier objections, Father of the House Lewis Williams of North Carolina argued that if Members were “to sit without hats” they would have no place to put them (the Old House Chamber had no facilities such as the modern day cloakrooms).
Other Members stressed the symbolic value of the tradition, noting that members of the British House of Commons wore hats during debate to symbolize that body’s independence from the King of England.
John M. Patton of Virginia defended “the really harmless but apparently indecorous practice of wearing our hats” as a manifestation of the House’s resolute rejection of presidential meddlesomeness.
“Regarding then this usage as merely ‘the outward and visible sign of the inward and spiritual’ freedom of this body from all executive control or interference, let us preserve it,” Patton declared on the floor.
“And whenever, if ever, our executive magistrates shall attempt to employ any improper influence on this body, let us be found with our hats on.”
end quotes
Perhaps that is why Nancy Pelosi changed the rules so that this Muslim Somali-American as she calls herself can wear a headscarf on the floor of the House of Representatives as a visible protest to Trump’s immigration policies.
But as she says, Hoss, it is a “NEW DAWN” in America, where the old ways are now dead, so don’t expect anything to any longer make any sense to you, because it probably won’t.
Mobs are not rational, they are ruled by passion, and passion is not rational.
Nor is Nancy Pelosi.
Joseph Francis Corcoran says
My suggestion for swearing in all USA Government officials : Use the Constitution of the United States of America .