“It’s the economy, stupid.” That was
Bill Clinton’s election campaign mantra. It reminds us how important the country’s
financial well-being is when voters go to the polls. This presents a dilemma
for Democratic candidates for the Oval Office.
Democrats have only one basic argument.
They have to persuade voters that President Trump’s management of the economy
has been a disaster for everybody but the rich, and that a socialist government
is the only way to narrow the gap between the wealthy and everybody else. To sell
this proposition they have to lie; they have to convince the electorate that
the facts are not the facts.
President Trump, for all his character
faults and debatable policies on trade and other matters, is singularly
responsible for the robust growth of the economy since his inauguration. He was
absolutely right in seeing that tax reduction and deregulation were the keys to
not just an economic expansion, but also narrowing income inequality.
What is the evidence? First, job
creation. Contrary to dire predictions from Democrats, the economy continues to
grow and add jobs, more jobs than there are workers to fill them in many
sectors. Workforce participation is up, and unemployment is at historic lows,
especially for minorities.
Second, wages for the lowest-paid
workers have increased at a higher rate than for the highest-paid, a sure sign of
an increased competition for workers. Coincidentally, the Congressional Budget
Office reports that the proportion of income going to the poorest fifth of
Americans has risen dramatically, while it has dropped for the wealthiest one-fifth.
Income inequality is not growing, as
socialist paragon Bernie Sanders would have us believe: it is narrowing. The
way to reverse this trend is to put a socialist in the White House, which can
only happen if the electorate buys the lies and ignores the facts.
As Bill Clinton might say again today,
“It’s the economy, stupid.” But who would he be talking to?
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