December 12, 2020

The U.S. Economy Doesn’t Need ‘Fixing’ From Biden

By Trish Regan 

Fans of my reporting know me – I’m always honest and upfront. And today, I’ve got to be honest about something else… I’m nervous about the future of the U.S. economy.

If Economics 101 courses teach their students anything, it’s that over-stimulus and excess government spending can lead to short-term benefits with long-term disaster. 

Yet, this is exactly Biden’s plan for economic “recovery.”

The market could do fine in the near future, and it probably will, but is our goal really for the American economy to just be “fine?” 

I want future generations to have the same opportunities that we’ve had. I want the right policies to get enacted so that we see real financial growth in our country. So wouldn’t we rather have the economy be great instead of just fine?

A “fine” economy is what we’re going to get, according to Biden’s potential fiscal and monetary policy attempts to balance the U.S. economic growth against its position in the global financial landscape.

But for the past four years, there’s been a consorted effort to put American businesses first, as a form of economic nationalism… And it’s been working.

Earlier this week on the American Consequences podcast, I spoke with Stephen Moore, the noted supply-side economist and author of Trumponomics, which details the “America First” plan Trump used for getting the economy back on track. 

Stephen recounted that 2020 has seen the most successful recovery from a recession we’ve ever had. 

He and I compared notes, and do you know what we found? We found that President Donald Trump’s actions over the years have helped stimulate the economy more than the entirety of Obama’s eight years in office.

Since 2016, the median incomes for lower-income American has grown by almost $6,500. 

Then, the U.S. corporate tax rate was cut to allow businesses to hire more workers in the U.S. and, all of a sudden, jobs and capital came flooding back from oversees. 

Even in the wake of the COVID-19 quarantines, Trump’s policies have created millions of jobs, which helped push the unemployment rate to under 7%.

And let’s not forget that analysts at the start of the quarantine predicted unemployment rates for December to be around 11%.

Now, President Trump is encouraging states to remain open so long as it is safe to do so – again, helping to ensure that the millions of small businesses in the U.S. don’t go bankrupt due to the lockdowns.

Biden plans to do the opposite – increase lockdowns and boost federal spending. But surely we know that if people can’t go out and spend their money, excess stimulus will only hurt us in the long term… 

Lockdowns to benefit the economy? That’s backwards thinking. And more small-business owners are coming forward expressing their fears in the face of Biden’s plans. Fears that I also share… 

My other podcast guest this week, Tom Del Beccaro, former chairman of the California Republican Party, enlightened me to a recent ruling by Los Angeles Superior Court Judge James Chalfant who overturned a ban on outdoor dining in LA County, asking “Where is the evidence that outdoor dining is contributing to the spread of the coronavirus?” 

That’s a great question. And the advocates for shutting down restaurants didn’t have an answer… No direct testing has been done, yet hundreds of thousands of restaurants are facing the threat of closing because they can’t pay their bills.

So then why is it that all we’ve been hearing about in the news these days is how Biden’s increased lockdowns will help to fix the U.S. economy? 

It seems to me that the mainstream media is playing up the perceived terrible state of the U.S. under President Trump so that when Biden takes office and the economy goes back to being “fine,” Democrats can celebrate his victory. 

They’re setting Biden up for success, saying, “Look what he’s been handed.”

When in reality, he’s been handed an economy that has grown during an unprecedented global pandemic. 

But sure… let’s give more economic handouts to the U.S. citizens, then see what small-business owners do when their employees make more money staying home than they do going into work. 

You can listen to both full interviews on the American Consequences podcast here.

Read our latest issues of American Consequences by clicking here.

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Regards, 

Trish Regan
Executive Editor, American Consequences
With Editorial Staff
December 12, 2020