THE ONLY THING WE HAVE TO FEAR; IS ANOTHER DEMOCRAT PRESIDENT

  

  I do not consider myself to be an expert on the economy but as a student of history I think I am smarter than the average bear. History has shown us that our system of free market capitalism is vastly better than socialism. It has allowed Americans to enjoy unparalleled prosperity. I laugh when I hear Obama and the Democrats try to take credit for Trumps booming economy right now. Biden is pushing this line in his campaign speeches and I have several Democrat friends that make this argument. Democrats say that the economy was trending toward a boom under Obama and basically Trump just gave things a nudge. This argument is ridiculous for a variety of reasons. Obama's economy was anemic for the full eight years he was in office. He had a record number of quarters where economic growth was 2% or lower and it never got above 3%. Trump has consistently averaged in the 3% to 4% range and it could go higher. The unemployment numbers under Trump has dropped lower than 4%, which is the lowest number in 17 years. Just the announcement of Trumps election seemed to have an overnight positive effect on the economy and the stock market and it has done nothing but improve these last almost three years. One of the worst things for any economy is uncertainty and Obama created uncertainty for a variety of reasons the entire time he was president. Trump has stimulated the economy by lowering taxes and deregulation. The way Obama answered the critics of his anemic economy was to blame his predecessor George W. Bush. In fairness Obama did inherit a bad economy from Bush but that doesn't excuse eight years of his economic sluggishness. Reagan on the other hand inherited an even worse economy in 1981 but by 1983 the economy was rocking and rolling. Obama blamed his predecessor for a sluggish economy and now he wants to take credit for his successors great economy. 

Obama had the same impact on the economy during his two terms from 2009 until 2017 as Roosevelt had on the Great Depression from 1933 until 1940. Both men tampered with the economy which prolonged the misery. Any legitimate economist will tell you that Roosevelt's New Deal did not get America out of the depression. The build up for WW2 and the war itself got us out of the depression. If it had not been for the war there is no telling how long the depression might have lasted. It would have taken a pro growth Democrat or Republican reversing Roosevelts New Deal programs to get us out of it otherwise. Republican Herbert Hoover also tampered with the economy. He was an engineer by trade and like most engineers thought that he could fix things. Many of the New deal programs were borrowed from Herbert Hoover. The Republican Congress under Hoover worsened the depression by passing the Smoot-Hawley Tariff Act in 1930 which raised tariffs on over 200,000 imported goods. If Calvin Coolidge, a true Conservative president, had still been in office when the stock market crashed in 1929 we would have probably been over the depression by 1932, or well on our way when Roosevelt was elected.  There have been at least 12 major depressions or recessions in American history. The Panic of 1797, the Depression of 1807, the Depression of 1815, the Panic of 1837, the Panic of 1857, the Panic of 1873, the Panic of 1893, the Panic of 1907, the Depression of 1920, the Great Depression, the Recession of the early 1980's, and the housing market collapse, better known as the Great Recession of 2007.

There are business expansions and business contractions. Contractions tend to be of shorter duration than expansions. The longest contraction was the Great Depression. We had a short depression in 1920 and I have heard that it was as bad or worse  as the Great Depression. In my opinion it was short because, another notorious tamperer, Woodrow Wilson, was leaving office and Warren Harding was coming into office. Harding, however; believed in the same pro growth conservative fiscal agenda that Coolidge was able to implement after Harding's death in 1923. This led to the great economic prosperity of the 1920's. Coolidge believed in low taxes, decreased spending, and deregulation. He didn't have the large military budget, and social programs to finance like Reagan and Trump have had to deal with so he could more easily cut spending. When presidents implement these conservative principles economic recessions are of short duration. The presidents that tamper with the economy cause recessions and depressions to last longer. Roosevelt and Obama provided relief for many that were suffering from the effects of the Great Depression, and so called Great Recession, but this relief and government regulation was like an anchor weight around the neck of the economy. New Deal programs included the National Recovery Act, the CCC, the WPA among other things along with the regulation of business and industry. Obama pushed through Obamacare and more people than ever were forced to go on government assistance during his two terms. Relief programs such as the Food Stamp program and welfare. People who could probably have worked if there had been jobs opted for going on Social Security disability just to make out. There was an estimated ninety million people listed as the chronically unemployed who simply gave up looking for jobs. In order to make Obama's unemployment statistics look better the government did not even count these people as unemployed.

Obama enacted a vast amount of regulations on business and industry and nearly put the coal industry out of business. He was also detrimental to the energy business in general. In spite of Obama the Frackers were able to put new life into the American oil business by fracking for oil on private land. The states that had fracking enjoyed a much better economy than the nation as a whole. Presidents that use a Keynesian economic approach to the economy such as Hoover, Roosevelt, George W. Bush, and Obama cause uncertainty in the economy. Businesses and entrepreneurs are afraid to take risks with their money and withhold investments. Coolidge, Kennedy, Reagan, and Trump were good for the economy because they were and are pro growth. Believing in low taxes, less regulation and lower spending. Unemployment is very low and at historical lows for Blacks and Hispanics. Help Wanted signs are everywhere. Even for industries that I would never expect to see a help wanted sign on, such as Nissan here locally. Welfare assistance such as Food Stamps are way down compared to the Obama era. Wages are rising again while they were stagnant under Obama. They would go even higher if we could get the illegal immigration problem under control. The coal industry is thriving and America is the largest producer of oil and gas in the world now. Although we are in a trade war with China Trumps ultimate goal is good. Which is the elimination of tariffs and moving toward parity with China regarding our trade imbalance with them. Never has America had a clearer economic and moral choice as we have now. We can continue toward the light of prosperity or we can return to the economic dark ages of Obama and socialism by electing a Democrat in 2020.