“THE TWILIGHT ZONE”
May 8, 2019
Dear Friends and Colleagues:
This past week was an excursion into the Twilight Zone — the real world on one side and leftist loudmouths on the other, cheered on by much of the mainstream media. It began with a Senate Committee hearing testimony from the Attorney General, and later with the incredible jobs report that showed hundreds of thousands of new jobs added in a single month, which has driven unemployment figures down to 3.6 percent for the first time in decades. On top of that, wages for lower-paying jobs increased again, and the GDP remained strong.
Throughout the hearing, the Democrat senators insisted on overlooking the obvious facts that a deep, two-year dive by a score and more of Democrat lawyers found no collusion by any Americans related to Russian interference in the 2016 elections. The same crack team of “investigators” found insufficient evidence to conclude that Trump or any of his team had obstructed their probe. However, they cleverly left the “idea” of obstruction open and listed several instances when our frustrated president (justifiably and understandably) got steamed and groused about wanting an end to that intrusive and destructive saga – but didn’t act on any of those musings. Nobody was fired and nobody obstructed.
So, with no facts, and an Attorney General who had earlier stated that the Trump campaign had been “spied upon” and that he was readying a team that would look into the “predicate” for that spying, the leftist senators – several of whom have announced their candidacy for president — peppered the AG with silly questions, ad hominem attacks, and sought to catch him in a falsehood over a “snitty” letter sent to the AG by the Special Counsel – a letter that was deliberately leaked to the press the day before the hearing. More reasons to thank that “great American,” Special Counsel Robert Mueller.
Alas, the Democrat senators’ efforts were no match for the stolid honesty and clear-headed thinking of Attorney General Barr. He calmly eviscerated their false charges and attacks without raising his voice or changing his demeanor. He simply made them look both foolish and futile.
And then later in the week, the great economic news – the jobs report and the rising wages – also drew crazy talk – especially from Senator Cory Booker, who has declared for the Democrat presidential nomination. He claims that by some miracle, eight long years of Obama’s failed economic “recovery” practices had in fact laid the groundwork and created the conditions that enabled the economic successes and genuine recovery by the Trump economy. Gee, eight long years of losing jobs, including “manufacturing jobs that were never coming back” – and high unemployment – at levels that discouraged job-seekers from even looking for work – were in reality creating conditions for a booming rebound? Senator Booker can’t really believe that, nor can you or I.
The Trump economy was set in motion simultaneously on several complementary fronts: Reduce tax rates on corporations (which pass the costs on to customers anyway); adjust the rules to attract (repatriate corporate capital [funds] back to the US from overseas and thus encourage reinvestment in growth and job creation; cut the capital gains tax and remove federal government regulations that inhibit growth; and finally, to cut personal income taxes to put more money into circulation (spending spurs demand and increases employment – jobs!). Oh, and he began renegotiating trade agreements that were patently unfair to Americans, and so on. Obama did none of those things. None, as in zero! Sorry, Cory, but that dog won’t hunt.
The cumulative effects of Trump’s efforts drove the stock market to soaring new highs, brought back the “manufacturing jobs” that were “gone forever” (according to Obama), put more money in pockets of consumers and thus increased demand and opened tens of thousands of new job opportunities to meet that demand.
Plus, it put people back to work and raised their wages – as demand for workers began to overtake their availability.
Best of all, when more folks have jobs, there are more taxpayers. Every reemployed worker is a “two-fer”; first he or she no longer needs public assistance (a drain on public funds – AKA tax dollars) and becomes a taxpayer.
Of course, all of this success was met by the left and their media acolytes with disdain and disinformation. “Only the ’rich’ and ‘big business’ got tax relief,” they trumpeted. But they fail to explain that it is impossible to give tax cuts to folks who already pay very little or zero taxes or mention that the top one percent of taxpayers pay as much as the bottom 40 percent of taxpayers. Because the economy is booming, “revenues” (the money taken in by the government) have increased so the tax cuts have nearly “paid” for themselves already. And the GDP grows at 3 percent and more each quarter.
Meanwhile, our “media” either bury the great economic news, or worse, headline the Democrat Party nonsense and distortions. Whatever happened to reporters? And folks wonder why newspapers are dying? In fact just yesterday, local TV news here in D.C. covered the closure of a large paper mill that was the sole support of many in a nearby Maryland county for well over a century. The mill closed because newsprint – those enormous, heavy rolls of paper – is no longer in enough demand to keep the mill running. None in my cul de sac still get The Washington Post each morning, and I get only The Washington Times delivered.
Watch the media and… “You have entered the twilight zone.”
Old Frank