Saturday, December 30, 2017

HOLIDAY SHOPPING DATA ILLUSTRATE SUCCESS OF TRUMP’S POLICIES AND DEMOCRATS’ DIFFICULT ROAD

HOLIDAY SHOPPING DATA ILLUSTRATE SUCCESS OF TRUMP’S POLICIES AND DEMOCRATS’ DIFFICULT ROAD

The Wall Street Journal reports on holiday shopping:
Fueled by high consumer confidence and a robust job market, U.S. retail sales in the holiday period rose at their best pace since 2011, according to MastercardSpendingPulse, which tracks both online and in-store spending.
Sales, excluding automobiles, rose 4.9% from Nov. 1 through Christmas Eve, compared with a 3.7% gain in the same period last year.
***
Unlike in past years, when spending was driven by high-income shoppers, this holiday a broader swath of the population opened their wallets, encouraged by rising wages and low unemployment, analysts and economists said.
“Fewer people are living paycheck to paycheck,” said Chris Christopher, executive director of economic research firm IHS Markit. “There is a lot more spending from the lower- and middle-income groups, while the upper-income groups are splurging.”
Emphasis added.
In next November’s elections, the Democrats won’t just be running against Republicans. They will be running against reality. Take the tax cut. I won’t rehash all of the crazy things Democrats have said about it; they have been compiled at many locations. But simply put, it is insane for Democrats to allege that a tax cut will raise most people’s taxes, or that cutting corporate income taxes to an internationally-normal level will destroy the economy.
The Democrats could have argued that the tax reform bill will add ruinously to the national debt, but having cheered on the $10 trillion that was added to the debt during the Obama years, that option wasn’t open to them. In any event, the tax reform’s pro-growth elements will likely make any impact on the debt minimal.
Lacking that argument, and lacking any coherent explanation of why people shouldn’t be happy about having their taxes cut and the companies they work for more profitable, the Democrats have been reduced to…Robert Strong.
For the Democrats, 2018 will be a race against time. They think they can take the House, and then impeach President Trump. They may be right. But keeping the hysteria dialed up to 12 while distracting voters from the facts–a growing economy, higher wages, lower taxes, a pro-America foreign policy, a return to the rule of law–won’t be easy. It is never easy to run against reality.

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