×

Guest column/Economy is thriving, despite the doomsday prophecies

The Democrats and the media want you to believe that America is in a total state of crisis — but their fear-mongering and obstruction haven’t derailed the thriving U.S. economy in the slightest.

According to the Labor Department, U.S. jobless claims recently fell to the lowest rate since 1969 after initial claims for state unemployment benefits dropped by 13,000.

“In the week ending Jan. 19, the advance figure for seasonally adjusted initial claims was 199,000, a decrease of 13,000 from the previous week’s revised level,” the department announced. “This is the lowest level for initial claims since Nov. 15, 1969, when it was 197,000.”

Many Americans will likely find this number surprising, especially when the Democrats and their comrades in the mainstream media are working overtime to downplay any good report about the U.S. economy.

In fact, almost every news article about our ongoing economic growth and development now includes a sentence or two about how the data “exceeded expectations” of the so-called “experts.”

Earlier this month, for example, Reuters reported that economists predicted 225,000 jobless claims for the week that ended on Jan. 5 — a prediction that was off by almost 10,000 claims.

“The number of Americans filing applications for jobless benefits fell more than expected last week, pointing to sustained labor market strength that could further assuage concerns about the economy’s health,” the publication admitted at the time.

The outlook for the labor market is even rosier now that President Trump has ended the government shutdown and provided relief to hundreds of thousands of federal employees, some of whom had filed for unemployment benefits under a separate federal program.

Of course, underestimating the performance of the labor market is just the tip of the misinformation iceberg. For the last two years, the Democrats have argued that the President’s policies, including middle class tax cuts and deregulation, would shackle the U.S. economy.

When President Trump promised that his economic agenda would boost GDP growth to above 3 percent, the critics said he was “dreaming.” It turns out that he wasn’t.

When President Trump pledged to implement tough trade policies to protect American workers, the skeptics insisted that a “trade war” with China will hurt us more than Beijing. This was yet another miscalculation from the anti-Trump “experts.”

Not surprisingly, the list of fake doomsday prophecies is as long as the list of President Trump’s records and accomplishments — in less than two years, the Democrats and the media have managed to underestimate dozens of positive economic achievements of the Trump administration.

Like an impenetrable tank with thick armor, however, the roaring U.S. economy has been immune to all the negative predictions intended to minimize the success of President Trump’s policies.

Sadly, that won’t stop the Democrats from predicting the end of the world for as long as Donald Trump remains president.

(Blackwell served as the mayor of Cincinnati and as Ohio’s state treasurer and secretary of state. He currently serves on the board of directors for Club for Growth and National Taxpayers Union.)

NEWSLETTER

Today's breaking news and more in your inbox

I'm interested in (please check all that apply)
Are you a paying subscriber to the newspaper? *

COMMENTS

[vivafbcomment]

Starting at $4.73/week.

Subscribe Today