LIZ PEEK: The Trump economy is doing better than the media want to admit
President Donald Trump has a good story to tell on the economy; he should be telling it, because it’s a sure bet the liberal media will not.
Consider the big picture: unemployment is low, real wages are rising, the stock market is high, investment is booming and inflation, though above the Federal Reserve’s target, came down last month, and will recede again once oil prices stabilize. (Inflation, most recently at 3.5%, and at 2.6% excluding volatile food and energy, is also significantly below the 4.95% recorded on average under President Joe Biden.)
More good news: the conservative Committee to Unleash Prosperity reports that during the first 16 months of Trump’s current term, real incomes for the lowest 25% of earners increased almost $2,100, while they actually shrank under Biden.
Additionally, the Bank of America Institute writes that "total credit and debit card spending rising 6.3% year-over-year (YoY) in June - the strongest growth in over four years." Importantly, the Institute further reports that "gaps in wage and spending growth across income groups narrowed."
Wait! Income inequality is actually shrinking under Trump? Yes – but you sure won’t hear that from Bloomberg or CNBC – they’re too busy convincing voters that Republicans are hell-bent on pumping up the wealthy at the expense of, well, everybody else.
Sure, we have challenges, as always, and especially with the cost of living being too high and housing too expensive for many Americans. But, overall, the economy is in pretty good shape.
FOX NEWS POLL: MOST RATE THE ECONOMY NEGATIVELY, INCLUDING HALF OF REPUBLICANS
That’s not what most people think. A new survey from CNBC shows "61% of the public is pessimistic about the current state of the economy and about the outlook for the future." A Washington Post-Ipsos poll puts the president’s approval rating on the economy at a dismal 33%.
Why the disconnect? I blame the incessant negativity of the Trump-hating media and also the inability of many Republicans to articulate the benefits of lower taxes and lighter regulations, the president’s signature agenda. If your own team can’t sell your successes, you’re in trouble.
For instance, GOP candidates should be talking up the Trump accounts. Over 6 million children have already signed up for these deferred investment accounts, of which 1.4 million qualify for a $1,000 contribution from the Treasury.
Dell CEO Michael Dell, who, with his wife Susan, donated $6.25 billion to the program, said, "What the research shows us, pretty clearly, is that when a kid has even a small account in their name, they start to see themselves differently, and that shows up in graduation rates, in homeownership, in the businesses they start. That’s not just a financial outcome — it’s a mindset shift."
What could possibly be more transformational than giving millions of American children the opportunity to invest for the future and introducing them to the magic of compound interest? This is the best of Trump: inventive, inclusive and pragmatic.
The president signed an executive order in April also creating a new low-cost "Trump IRA," which Trump described as offering every American worker "the same type of retirement accounts that federal employees enjoy." According to one analysis, some 40% of full-time workers and the vast majority of part-time workers lack access to retirement savings through their employers. As of next year, when the program begins, that should change.
This is a game changer; the more people who have skin in the American economy, the better for our country.
The midterm elections are just over three months away. They will decide whether the Trump agenda can move forward or be buried under a blitzkrieg of vindictive investigations and impeachment hearings. Nothing in these remaining weeks will matter more than the state of the economy and how voters regard their own financial circumstances.
The House and the Senate are both in session this week, and not due to reconvene until mid-September. This is the moment to not only talk up recent economic successes, but also to deliver a splashy final policy assault, to convince voters that the GOP has more to offer.
Instead, Republicans appear on the cusp of passing a meager $95 billion reconciliation bill that mostly funds defense needs and helps farmers. So narrow is that legislation that some GOP House members are talking about a possible fourth reconciliation bill, to include other unaddressed priorities.
Why are Republicans playing defense? Why aren’t they taking what may be their last chance to create a bill that offers much-needed relief on housing, for instance? Many have proposed indexing the capital gains tax on home sales to inflation, to loosen up supply. Many older people, especially, cannot afford to sell their long-held homes because of the taxes they would owe. Why not fix that?
Why, in short, are Republicans in a defensive crouch?
Democrats, in charge of the most expensive cities and states in the U.S., are laughably telling voters they are the party concerned with "affordability." They also have, despite four years under Biden when inflation soared to 40-year highs, convinced voters that Republicans cannot be trusted to produce an economy that makes their lives easier.
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Democrats argue that the GOP’s tax cuts have benefited only the wealthy. That is not true. The Big Beautiful Bill’s features like an expanded child tax credit and standard deduction, "No Tax on Tips" and "No Tax on Overtime" benefited millions of working-class Americans. Families making between $15,000 and $30,000 saw tax cuts of 21%, the most of any income group, while the share of revenues coming from the top 10% actually rose.
That is a solid win for working people in the U.S. Republicans need to hit the campaign trail armed with those facts, and also with proposals that build on those gains.
To paraphrase James Carville, it is always – always – the economy, stupid.