Since we are about to enter the election year of 2020, it's worth taking a moment to consider what has changed since January of 2017 when President Trump took office. Here's a list of some of the more important items:
A. The Economy
1. General growth of GDP -- during 2016 (Obama's last year) the economy grew at less than 2%. When Trump got into office, the growth rate jumped so that the average is up near 3%. That may not sound like such a big difference, but the extra 1% per year for the last three years means that America produced more than a trillion dollars of additional products during that time. That's a lot of jobs for American workers.
2. Employment -- Under Trump, the economy has created over 3 million new jobs. Also the unemployment rate hit a 50 year low. Even better, the underemployment rate is also way down. That's the percentage of people working only part time because they couldn't find full time work combined with the number of people who have given up looking for a job. This number has fallen by nearly half since Trump took office. It's also worth noting that unemployment among African Americans, Hispanics, Asian Americans and women reached all time lows under Trump.
3. Inflation -- One would normally fear that a more rapidly growing economy with low unemployment would lead to a rise in inflation. Price rises, however, are not occurring any more today than they were under Obama. In both times, inflation has been kept below the 2% rate which is the target of the Federal Reserve.
4. Business creation -- in the Trump years, the number of new businesses formed has jumped dramatically. Indeed, the number of new businesses started by minorities has doubled from the rate seen under Obama. These new businesses create a great many new jobs. They are also the surest way for the owner to move higher up the income ladder.
B. Energy/Environment
1. American domestic energy production has soared under Trump. For the first time in more than 50 years, the USA is a net exporter of energy. America is also the world's largest producer of energy. The days of American dependence on OPEC or other foreign sources of energy have ended.
2. The USA is the only large economy that has met the goal of reducing the carbon emissions that are blamed by many as the reason for global warming. That's right, although Trump withdrew the USA from the Paris climate accords, America is the only large country that actually met the targets set by those accords. Instead of talking and posturing, America has been doing and accomplishing.
C. Immigration
1. After a long battle, the USA has finally seen a major reduction in illegal immigration under Trump. This was achieved mainly by convincing the Mexicans and Central Americans to stop illegals from traversing those countries on the way to the USA. It also was achieved by changing the loophole of claims of asylum used by illegals to gain entry and then to hide in the USA. The result of lower illegal immigration has been better job opportunities for entry level low-skilled employees and a reduction of the major burdens imposed on states and localities by indigent illegals.
D. Poverty
1. Because of all the new jobs and the reduction in illegal aliens, the poverty has declined in a major way. For example, the number of people using food stamps has dropped by about 10% even though the qualifications needed to get food stamps have remained unchanged. People have increased their earnings to a point where they no longer need the assistance. It's worth noting that under Obama, the number of people on food stamps just about doubled.
E. Terrorism
1. The ISIS caliphate is no more. It was created under Obama because he ignored ISIS; he called them just the "jayvee" terrorists. Then they took hold of half of Syria and about a third of Iraq. ISIS killed hundreds of thousands of people. At that point, the USA under Obama got involved in the fight against ISIS, but Obama had such stringent rules of engagement on our forces that they made little headway against the terrorists. Trump put operative command of the field forces back into the hands of the field commanders. As a result, ISIS was erased from both Syria and Iraq in relatively quick fashion. There are still those in these two countries who support the goals of ISIS, but that terrorist organization has been destroyed as a going concern.
F. Iran
1. Under Obama, the USA signed the JCPOA with Iran. That agreement guaranteed Iran that it would get nuclear weapons after ten years. It also provided Iran with hundreds of billions of dollars that the Iranians used to support terrorism in the Middle East and around the world. President Trump withdrew the USA from the JCPOA and put the sanctions back in place. As a result, the Iranian economy is squeezed and the mullahs no longer have the funds that they need to promote terrorism. In the last few months, there have been uprisings inside Iran against the mullahs. At the orders of the Ayatollah, Iranian forces have attacked the protesters and killed literally more than 1000 of them. This may result in quelling the uprisings for now or it may cause many more people to rise up and overthrow the Ayatollah and the Islamic Republic. Either way, however, things do not look good for the Iranian regime at the moment.
G. NATO
1. The main defensive alliance of the USA is NATO. Under the NATO treaty, each member state promises to spend at least 2% of its GDP on defense. Under Obama, the USA ignored the fact that very few of the NATO members met that obligation. President Trump started pushing NATO members to meet their obligations once he took office. As a result, the number of NATO members who now meet that obligation has more than doubled. Total annual defense spending by the NATO members other than the USA has increased by well over $100 billion. This is a major boost to the common defense.
H. China
1. Under Obama, the Chinese stole American intellectual property through spying, hacking and special requirements placed on US companies that wished to do business in China. The Chinese also manipulated their currency in order to be able to export huge amounts to America while reducing imports from America to China. Obama did nothing to combat this. Once in office, Trump took on the Chinese directly. He imposed tariffs on Chinese products so that the Chinese government understood that the days when they could steal US ideas and secrets at will were over. This confrontation with China has not ended, but the Chinese have definitely blinked. The USA and China are about to sign a partial deal (phase one) that will result in major exports by US firms to China as well as a reduction in Chinese activities through which they stole our intellectual property.
I. Presidential Style
1. Under Obama we had a president who was very smoothe. He always said something good even if he didn't actually do much of anything. Trump is the opposite. He frequently says things that some people don't like. In particular, the mainstream media is always looking for statements by Trump to criticize. Trump, however, (as is evident from the list above) does a great deal to benefit America. Especially if one uses the standard of what is considered "presidential" by the media pundits, Obama was better at meeting that style requirement than Trump is. The question, of course, though is whether it is more important to look presidential while doing precious little to benefit the USA (like Obama) or to take action after action that benefits the American people while acting in a much less elevated style (like Trump.)
A. The Economy
1. General growth of GDP -- during 2016 (Obama's last year) the economy grew at less than 2%. When Trump got into office, the growth rate jumped so that the average is up near 3%. That may not sound like such a big difference, but the extra 1% per year for the last three years means that America produced more than a trillion dollars of additional products during that time. That's a lot of jobs for American workers.
2. Employment -- Under Trump, the economy has created over 3 million new jobs. Also the unemployment rate hit a 50 year low. Even better, the underemployment rate is also way down. That's the percentage of people working only part time because they couldn't find full time work combined with the number of people who have given up looking for a job. This number has fallen by nearly half since Trump took office. It's also worth noting that unemployment among African Americans, Hispanics, Asian Americans and women reached all time lows under Trump.
3. Inflation -- One would normally fear that a more rapidly growing economy with low unemployment would lead to a rise in inflation. Price rises, however, are not occurring any more today than they were under Obama. In both times, inflation has been kept below the 2% rate which is the target of the Federal Reserve.
4. Business creation -- in the Trump years, the number of new businesses formed has jumped dramatically. Indeed, the number of new businesses started by minorities has doubled from the rate seen under Obama. These new businesses create a great many new jobs. They are also the surest way for the owner to move higher up the income ladder.
B. Energy/Environment
1. American domestic energy production has soared under Trump. For the first time in more than 50 years, the USA is a net exporter of energy. America is also the world's largest producer of energy. The days of American dependence on OPEC or other foreign sources of energy have ended.
2. The USA is the only large economy that has met the goal of reducing the carbon emissions that are blamed by many as the reason for global warming. That's right, although Trump withdrew the USA from the Paris climate accords, America is the only large country that actually met the targets set by those accords. Instead of talking and posturing, America has been doing and accomplishing.
C. Immigration
1. After a long battle, the USA has finally seen a major reduction in illegal immigration under Trump. This was achieved mainly by convincing the Mexicans and Central Americans to stop illegals from traversing those countries on the way to the USA. It also was achieved by changing the loophole of claims of asylum used by illegals to gain entry and then to hide in the USA. The result of lower illegal immigration has been better job opportunities for entry level low-skilled employees and a reduction of the major burdens imposed on states and localities by indigent illegals.
D. Poverty
1. Because of all the new jobs and the reduction in illegal aliens, the poverty has declined in a major way. For example, the number of people using food stamps has dropped by about 10% even though the qualifications needed to get food stamps have remained unchanged. People have increased their earnings to a point where they no longer need the assistance. It's worth noting that under Obama, the number of people on food stamps just about doubled.
E. Terrorism
1. The ISIS caliphate is no more. It was created under Obama because he ignored ISIS; he called them just the "jayvee" terrorists. Then they took hold of half of Syria and about a third of Iraq. ISIS killed hundreds of thousands of people. At that point, the USA under Obama got involved in the fight against ISIS, but Obama had such stringent rules of engagement on our forces that they made little headway against the terrorists. Trump put operative command of the field forces back into the hands of the field commanders. As a result, ISIS was erased from both Syria and Iraq in relatively quick fashion. There are still those in these two countries who support the goals of ISIS, but that terrorist organization has been destroyed as a going concern.
F. Iran
1. Under Obama, the USA signed the JCPOA with Iran. That agreement guaranteed Iran that it would get nuclear weapons after ten years. It also provided Iran with hundreds of billions of dollars that the Iranians used to support terrorism in the Middle East and around the world. President Trump withdrew the USA from the JCPOA and put the sanctions back in place. As a result, the Iranian economy is squeezed and the mullahs no longer have the funds that they need to promote terrorism. In the last few months, there have been uprisings inside Iran against the mullahs. At the orders of the Ayatollah, Iranian forces have attacked the protesters and killed literally more than 1000 of them. This may result in quelling the uprisings for now or it may cause many more people to rise up and overthrow the Ayatollah and the Islamic Republic. Either way, however, things do not look good for the Iranian regime at the moment.
G. NATO
1. The main defensive alliance of the USA is NATO. Under the NATO treaty, each member state promises to spend at least 2% of its GDP on defense. Under Obama, the USA ignored the fact that very few of the NATO members met that obligation. President Trump started pushing NATO members to meet their obligations once he took office. As a result, the number of NATO members who now meet that obligation has more than doubled. Total annual defense spending by the NATO members other than the USA has increased by well over $100 billion. This is a major boost to the common defense.
H. China
1. Under Obama, the Chinese stole American intellectual property through spying, hacking and special requirements placed on US companies that wished to do business in China. The Chinese also manipulated their currency in order to be able to export huge amounts to America while reducing imports from America to China. Obama did nothing to combat this. Once in office, Trump took on the Chinese directly. He imposed tariffs on Chinese products so that the Chinese government understood that the days when they could steal US ideas and secrets at will were over. This confrontation with China has not ended, but the Chinese have definitely blinked. The USA and China are about to sign a partial deal (phase one) that will result in major exports by US firms to China as well as a reduction in Chinese activities through which they stole our intellectual property.
I. Presidential Style
1. Under Obama we had a president who was very smoothe. He always said something good even if he didn't actually do much of anything. Trump is the opposite. He frequently says things that some people don't like. In particular, the mainstream media is always looking for statements by Trump to criticize. Trump, however, (as is evident from the list above) does a great deal to benefit America. Especially if one uses the standard of what is considered "presidential" by the media pundits, Obama was better at meeting that style requirement than Trump is. The question, of course, though is whether it is more important to look presidential while doing precious little to benefit the USA (like Obama) or to take action after action that benefits the American people while acting in a much less elevated style (like Trump.)
1 comment:
Let’s see how GDP is this year.
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