Every month we get another jobs report and we get to say the same things again. Trump is winning. The economy is winning. The liberals were wrong. If Congress would do anything at all, these numbers could be even better.
You might think I’d get tired of repeating this message, but I don’t. I’m still just as tickled every time the numbers come back and prove how terrible liberals are at basic economics. I’m also thrilled to see that Obama’s legacy won’t have lasting damage in every facet of American life (cough healthcare cough). Still, it’s a new month with a new set of numbers, so we’ll take a look.
Key Numbers
The biggest headline is unemployment. It’s now down to 4.1 percent. That’s the best unemployment number in 17 years, and it’s one of the best of all time. That’s encouraging, but unemployment alone isn’t everything.
The other big number is that 261,000 new jobs were created. For reference, last October saw only 161,000 new jobs. This also happened after a brutal series of natural disasters that put the economy on a temporary hold in September. Almost all of the jobs lost to hurricanes have been replenished. Underemployment is also below 8 percent for the first time in a decade.
It isn’t all rainbows and sunshine. Wages are only up 2.4 percent since last year (we’ll harp on this more in a minute). Labor force participation also dropped by a few fractions of a percent over the month. In all, we’re looking at a strong and growing economy, but it’s nothing compared to what it could be if Congress was effective on a single piece of legislation this year.
What Liberals Get Wrong
Now for the fun part. Here’s a brief recap of Liberals biggest complaints about a Trump economy. For starters, they predicted sudden and total economic devastation. They said Trump would kill jobs, but job growth has accelerated in 2017. They said manufacturing wouldn’t come back. It added 24,000 new jobs last month, continuing the longest growth streak in the sector since before Obama. They said the same thing about coal and it’s enjoying similar sustained growth.
Most of all, they promised that when unemployment finally went below five percent we would see a return on wage growth. We haven’t for a few important reasons. The biggest is that underemployment is still way too high. There’s still an effective pool of job applicants who need a second position just to hit 40 hours in a week. That number is coming down, but it’s inhibited by regulation and outdated tax structure.
Trump wants to alleviate corporate taxes that are being applied to small businesses. Success here would instantly free hundreds of billions of dollars that employers would love to reinvest in employment. That’s the real key to seeing underemployment slashes and a return to healthy wage growth.
What to Expect
I would love to tell you that we’re going to enter true Trump-era economics and enjoy the riches that come with it. Congress has proven to me that they are determined to keep America down. Their ineptitude so far this year is likely to continue as they address taxes. Sure, we’ll see a couple of light changes, and they might help some.
The few, simple revisions that could really let the American economy surge forward won’t happen. At least, they’re out of reach until the midterm elections give voters a chance to replace dead-weight representatives with men and women of action.
It’s frustrating to see Trump proven right time and again only to have too many members of Congress cave to the lunacy of the left. They aren’t arguing with theory anymore. The raw numbers are irrefutable, and we have a real chance to return America to the economic fortunes of the Reagan era.
It can only happen if we put proper pressure on Representatives and Senators and make sure they know that their days in office are numbered if they don’t start fighting for the people. There’s still time. Trump hasn’t even finished his first year and he’s already overturned the worst of Obama’s economic policy that was hurting so many Americans.
He is keeping his promises, and if we give him a Congress that plays ball, he can keep them to the tune of number that just might make the left cry in confusion.
~ American Liberty Report
