Michael Reagan
It’s surprising that a White House incapable of organizing a two-car funeral — if you believe the mainstream liberal media — is presiding over the most robust economy the U.S. has had in years. One could almost say it makes America great again.
Strange, isn’t it? The Obama administration boy and girl geniuses were managing up a storm when it came to the economy, yet growth was sluggish, wages stagnant and economic optimism was nowhere to be found.
Then the Trump clown car crashed into the Resolute desk in the Oval Office and all hell broke loose. And that’s in a good way. A man the OpMedia assures us is one drool away from assisted–living or one tantrum away from a rubber room may achieve 3 percent growth in the economy, something that hasn’t happened since 2005.
It’s almost enough to make you question the credibility of the liberal media!
And still President Trump gets zero credit from the usual media suspects. The only time they take a break from trying to find a pixie dust trail leading to “Russia collusion” is when they try to find equally elusive evidence that Obama is the cause of our present economic growth.
Let’s run down a few of the statistics courtesy of a roundup from The Hill. In August the economy added 201,000 jobs, which was more than predicted.
The unemployment rate stayed at 3.9 percent, which is an almost 18-year low.
Wage growth edged up 2.9 percent, which is “the fastest growth since the recession ended in June 2009.”
Even better for deplorables, “the bulk of the wage gains are coming for workers who earn lower wages, which is a good sign since pay raises have been slow in those areas during the expansion.” This means Trump’s immigration policies, designed to stop the flood of low-wage illegals, are beginning to have an impact on paychecks.
When there is less competition from Tijuana, employers are forced to pay wages that make sense in Tulsa. Even better for workers who have been out of a job for a long time, employers are going to be adding internal training or apprenticeship programs to train the workers they need, instead of being picky and waiting for the already trained to walk in the door.
It’s important at this point that the Trump administration doesn’t listen to cheap labor whiners and increase the flow of employer-sponsored visas that import cheap foreign labor.
In the meantime, if the president is waiting for credit for delivering the expanding economy he promised during the campaign, he’s going to be waiting a long time. We hope he finds the fact he is making America great again to be more than a little consolation.
Michael Reagan is the son of President Ronald Reagan, a political consultant, and the author of “Lessons My Father Taught Me: The Strength, Integrity, and Faith of Ronald Reagan.” He is the founder of the email service reagan.com and president of The Reagan Legacy Foundation. Visit his websites at reagan.com and michaelereagan.com. Send comments to Reagan@caglecartoons.com. Follow @reaganworld on Twitter.