We come to the end of another eventful week. Here’s some catch-up, new information and thoughts:
The WSJ had a story yesterday that backed up what we have been telling you concerning the 2018 elections. Here is an excerpt.
“FOR 2018 AND BEYOND, Mr. Jones’s win shows that Democrats are proving more eager to vote than are Republicans. The enthusiasm gap was powered by the fact that African-American voters were motivated. Voter turnout was down on Tuesday compared with the 2016 presidential election, which is normal for a special election. But it was down much less in counties with large African-American populations, where Mr. Jones captured 60% or more of the vote”.
OPINION:
Trump and the Republicans need to build some enthusiasm and can only do that by uniting and sticking to message. Right now they are not close. Trump has no party leadership support and the message is unfocused.
Cal Thomas, a long time Washington corespondent had a great column yesterday. It’s another point we have been hammering. Here’s an excerpt.
“Side issues — some of them created by the president himself — have obscured the accomplishments of the Donald Trump administration during his first year in office.
The economy is the most obvious one. From anemic growth in the previous administration, it is now growing at around 3 percent, which economists say is ideal. The stock market continues to set records, fattening retirement portfolios.
Unemployment is at its lowest level since 2000. It is also at a 17-year low for African-Americans, and it has dropped for all other major racial and ethnic groups. The black community is unlikely to give the president much credit because of its addiction to the Democratic Party, even though that party has taken their votes for granted and done little for them”.
That enough is to run on but then he added this:
“During the campaign, candidate Trump promised to increase the number of manufacturing jobs. Critics said he couldn’t do it because those jobs were gone forever. A White House statement claims that 159,000 manufacturing jobs have been created since the president took office. This contrasts with the final year of the Obama administration, when manufacturing jobs were being trimmed at an average of 1,000 per month, according to the statement.
The Treasury Department’s Office of Tax Policy estimates that the administration’s economic policies will increase tax revenue by $1.8 trillion over 10 years.
On his visits to China, Vietnam and South Korea, the president achieved trade deals worth more than $270 billion that will benefit American companies and their employees.
The “caliphate” in Iraq and Syria established by the Islamic State has been effectively destroyed, primarily because the president lifted rules of engagement and allowed the military to go after the terrorists as if this is a real war, which it is, and not a conflict where one side is burdened by rules and the other isn’t.
Illegal immigration has declined substantially even before a wall is constructed.
The president is fulfilling other promises. He is populating the federal courts with judges who are subject to the constraints of the Constitution and don’t have a history of legislating from the bench.
Unnecessary regulations on businesses imposed by the previous administration are being rolled back, which is helping to fuel the economic boom”.
Opinion:
An impressive record to run on wouldn’t you say? Yet the coverage is 91% negative and fueled in large part by mindless tweets.
The rumor yesterday was Paul Ryan was not going to run for reelection in 2018. We believe that could be true. He has always said he didn’t want to stay long, and the prospect of being minority leader with Nancy Pelosi as Speaker might be too much.
His role as Speaker is challenging at best.. A divided Republican party despite its majority is impossible to manage. Getting any legislation to pass with the Freedom Caucus group on the right and Democrats on the left is a thankless job.
The tax cuts are to be released today and we are sick of all the bickering and complaining from within the Republican caucus and outside from the Democrats. Everyone wants “just this” and before it’s over the bill is altered. How about doing the right thing for the American people?
As for the Democrats enough already. The constant harping that “this is a tax cut for the rich and big business is sickening.
First off, only people with jobs or income pay taxes. You can’t cut what you don’t pay.
Second the tax cut for big business is to make America competitive and bring jobs and money home. What is so hard about that to understand? Would they rather the companies keep moving jobs overseas? Keep profits in foreign lands and banks? Because not cutting the rate results in that.
They moved jobs and dollars out because you – Congress – taxed them out the country. If you ran a business and could get a 15% rate in a stable country or pay 35% in the U.S. what would you do? Cutting the rate to 20% just makes us competitive. The 15% Trump wanted to start was right.
Now by the way we hear the rate is going to be 21 or 22%. Already that is non competitive and if you know business they will not hesitate to get that extra 2% on billions of dollars and stay where they are.
Stop already, you are embarrassing yourself. By the way when Obama wanted to cut the business rate Chuck and team were all for it.What changed? Trump won and proposed the cut.