The Patriot Post® · Dems Blame Trump, Credit Obama for Economy

Last Friday’s jobs report showed some staggering numbers.

The U.S. unemployment rate fell to its lowest level in 50 years, and more than a quarter million jobs were added in the month of April alone.

As Susan Ferrechio writes at the Washington Examiner, “Friday’s report on job gains is just another in a series of indicators that show the economy under President Trump is booming. Republicans and the president credit policies they put in place to reduce government regulations and taxes. The party’s signature achievement, a comprehensive tax reform law, lowered taxes not only for individuals but small businesses and corporations.”

But Democrats simply can’t begrudge Donald Trump (or any Republican president) any credit for what is unequivocally good news for all Americans. Consequently, when the economy roars under Republican leadership, Democrats drum up a lot of deceptive ways to either distract us from the good news or to simply give themselves credit.

For example, Democrat Sens. Amy Klobuchar and Cory Booker, both 2020 presidential candidates, argue that former President Barack Obama really started the economic recovery we’re enjoying today. They’re referring to the same Obama who said America’s lost jobs would never come back, who referred to 2% economic growth as the “new normal,” and who became the only U.S. president to never post a single year of 3% growth.

Another tactic employed by the Left is to simply ignore what’s happening. Ferecchio adds, “Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., tweeted another call for Trump’s impeachment, Joe Biden tweeted about restoring voting rights for felons in Florida, former Rep. Beto O'Rourke tweeted about tackling climate change, and Sen. Kamala Harris, D-Calif., tweeted about unaffordable healthcare and the need for Medicare for All.”

With the Leftmedia trumpeting the Democrat message, no wonder so many Americans are convinced that they’re not “feeling” the benefits of Trump’s economy.

The facts, however, paint a different and more realistic picture.

Adam Michel explains at The Daily Signal, “When the economy is strong and unemployment rates are consistently low, two things happen. First, job openings pull workers off the sidelines and into the workforce. People who had been so discouraged that they stopped looking for work start getting jobs again. That’s what we’re seeing. New York Times reporter Ben Casselman noted that more than 70% of new hires last month "weren’t actively looking for work, but got jobs anyway.”

The unemployment rate fell to historic lows for Americans with a high-school diploma, for workers with disabilities, and for both black and Hispanic workers. As Michel concludes, “One could hardly wish for a better trend. This economy is working for every class of American.”

Tell that to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, who responded to the incredible numbers from the April jobs report by incredulously stating, “Unfortunately, the evidence shows that most of the economic gains continue to benefit those already well off.”

If by “well off” she means anyone with a job and a future, then she has a point. It’s more likely, though, that Pelosi simply can’t stomach the prospect of so many newly employed Americans now being able to break their dependence on government.

Meanwhile, former Vice President Joe Biden delivered a mostly incoherent message for a paltry crowd that included a promise to restore the soul of America and to build the backbone of the country. One might ask: Where was that soul and that backbone during the Obama-Biden years?

Yet, in the same speech, Biden’s recipe for building America’s backbone included tired and worn calls for increasing taxes, restoring ObamaCare, raising the minimum wage to $15 per hour, and offering free tuition for community college. That message simply won’t sell to millions of Americans now drawing a paycheck for the first time in months or even years.

And all this happened because President Trump reversed Obama’s policies to those that reduced taxes for individuals and businesses of all sizes, removed excessive regulations from the federal bureaucracy, and unleashed our nation’s untapped energy resources.

Between now and November 2020, Democrats will pull out all the stops to convince Americans that times are tough — indeed, they’re desperately hoping for recession. But millions of people casting votes on Election Day will have a job that they didn’t have before the Trump presidency, and that might be enough to keep the Democrats from taking us back to their “new normal” of economic stagnation.