Bubble Gum and Paperclips

Consumer confidence rose to 125.9 in October, the highest since December of 2000. The DOW has set over 70 new benchmarks since the election, even surpassing 23,000, and subsequently has added over 5 trillion dollars to the economy. Home prices have hit record highs, registering a 6% annual gain. The unemployment rate has dropped to 4.2%, down from 4.8% in January, and jobless claims are at their lowest level since 1973. One and half fewer million Americans are on public assistance. The US has now enjoyed two consecutive quarters of 3% GDP growth…even despite two devastating hurricanes, wildfires and the anti-business trust of California, New York and Illinois. By Contrast, Obama’s median annual GDP was 1.48% in 8 years. And all this without a new budget in effect to aggressively lower the deficit or sweeping tax cuts to trigger even greater investment and expansion. As President Trump continues to trim the endless Red Tape of excessive bureaucracy and federal overreach, I’d say such impressive initial progress more than qualifies as a worthy opening act for “Making America Great Again”.

If you’re interested in genuine economic upward mobility for individuals and families and not runaway statism dividing the fruits of other people’s labor, then true vitality and independence reside in a robust and diverse private sector. When a fertile environment for commercial growth produces more profitable businesses and quality jobs for an ever industrious populace, people are far more likely to own their own home, buy their own health care, and properly provide for their children. Unless you believe billions in taxpayers’ hard-earned money should be used almost exclusively as a means to an end – inviting mass dependency by rewarding envy and apathy to the point of federal insolvency and bankruptcy – why would you empower the most inept, corrupt and wasteful institution in America; or in socialist terms, legalize theft and the equal division of misery in a country predicated upon limited government?  Considering no nation has ever taxed itself into prosperity and the top 20% of earners now pay 95% of all income taxes, as recently confirmed by the Office of Management and Budget, I believe “fair share” should equate to the amount of personal responsibility people accept for their own lives; including the greatest usurpers and domestic abusers of all, the Washington establishment.