America’s economy is booming—people are working; job growth continues; consumer confidence is soaring; other economic indicators show increasing optimism. All of this a testament to the entrepreneurial genius of the American people who made this remarkable growth possible, especially now that they’ve been freed from excessive taxation and regulations.
Of course, there are some Americans left behind in this economic boom: they’re called the congressional Democrats. It was their party’s candidates who opposed tax reform and the elimination of regulations that have slowed economic growth over the years, probably because they were the ones who had clamored for the regulations in the first place.
Thus, the Democrats’ conundrum: how to create a “blue wave” election in the face of a “green wave” economy?
To date, while tax reform is still in its policy infancy, the Democrats seem to have taken a two-pronged approach to “revisiting” it.
First, the Democrats want to make the middle-class tax cut permanent. (Well, as “permanent” as a statute can be.) Of course, the GOP would love nothing more than to have the Democrats support making middle-class tax relief permanent now.
Ah, but these are the Democrats, after all—the party that never understood that tax cuts spur growing economy and actually increase federal revenues; the party that now apparently rediscovered federal budget deficits and the national debt after eight years of supporting massive government spending during the Obama Administration; and the party that inveterately must attack corporate America (even while taking its PAC money).
So what is the sticking point to making middle-class tax relief permanent now?
In revisiting tax reform, Democrats believe something must be done to address the federal budget deficit and the national debt. Can you say “hiking taxes on corporations”? And, let’s not forget, the Democrats want to drill all American business by resurrecting the onerous regulations the Trump Administration has been repealing steadily.
In sum, the Democrats economic messaging is that, somehow, this roaring economy would be even better if everything that recently was enacted to promote it was repealed—namely, the GOP’s tax and regulatory reforms. But this is the Democrats’ problem in confronting the “green wave,” when Americans’ growing economic opportunities and experiences refute the Left’s socialist policies. Ergo, the Democrats’ economic “policy” is really just a talking point. It is reminiscent of the old Chico Marx line: “Who you gonna believe, me or your own eyes?”
In fact, even if, in the 2018 midterm elections, the Democrats win both the House and Senate, absent a veto-proof majority in both, the elimination of tax and regulatory reform will remain but a talking point heading into the 2020 presidential election. This, in itself, will not help the economy for it guarantees that the specter of returning to the Democrats’ sluggish “recovery” fueled by a plethora of new taxes and regulations is a distinct possibility after the 2020 election.
So, in the 2018 midterms, voters can have the “blue wave” or the “green wave”—but not both. Doubtless, as a practical people never really fond of politicians, the American voters will measure their economic gains by the hearth of home; and the smart money is on the “green wave.”
Photo credit: iStock/Getty Images