Pavlich: Trump delivers on recovery

When President Obama came into office back in 2009, he assured the American people dumping a trillion dollars of so-called stimulus package money into the economy would create “shovel ready” jobs and an increase in gross domestic product (GDP) growth. Those still suffering from the economic crash of 2008 were told in 2010, and then repeatedly year-after-year, that “recovery summer” was on its way.

“Vice President Joe Biden today will kick off the Obama administration’s ‘Recovery Summer,’ a six-week-long push designed to highlight the jobs accompanying a surge in stimulus-funded projects to improve highways, parks, drinking water and other public works,” Politico reported in June 2010.

“This summer will be the most active Recovery Act season yet, with thousands of highly-visible road, bridge, water and other infrastructure projects breaking ground across the country, giving the American people a first-hand look at the Recovery Act in their own backyards and making it crystal clear what the cost would have been of doing nothing,” then-Obama senior adviser David Axelrod said at the time.

{mosads}Seven summers came and went without recovery and just two years after Obama’s big government spending project failed to yield results, he admitted expectations for the stimulus package were grossly overestimated.

“Shovel-ready was not as shovel-ready as we expected,” Obama said during a 2011 Jobs and Competitiveness Council meeting. He also admitted extensive government regulations delayed the start of new, “shovel ready” construction projects for years.

And yet, he kept justifying more government and tighter controls as the answer by implementing tens of thousands of new government regulations. He smothered the economy and therefore severely limited its ability to recover and grow. The GDP throughout the course of his presidency averaged just 2 percent.

But when summer 2017 rolled around with a new president in the Oval Office, Donald Trump, things actually started to change and the recovery summer Americans were promised finally showed up.

This year, 138,000 manufacturing jobs have come roaring back after a loss of 34,000 in 2016. In November alone, 228,000 new jobs were created and unemployment is at a 17-year low. The GPD since Trump took office has gone from 1.2 percent in the first quarter to 3.3 percent in the third.

Business confidence is near an all-time high and consumer confidence is back.

The rollback of regulation from the federal government under the direction of the White House has lifted the boot off the necks of industries, companies and businesses eager to grow and expand.

“Small business owners are exuberant about the economy, and they are ready to lead the U.S. economy in a period of robust growth,” National Federation of Independent Business (NFIB)President and CEO Juanita Duggan says. “We haven’t seen this kind of optimism in 34 years, and we’ve seen it only once in the 44 years that NFIB has been conducting this research.”

“The NFIB indicators clearly anticipate further upticks in economic growth, perhaps pushing up toward four percent GDP growth for the fourth quarter. This is a dramatically different picture than owners presented during the weak 2009-16 recovery,” NFIB Chief Economist Bill Dunkelberg adds.

Since Election Day, the Dow Jones industrial average has increased in value by nearly 25 percent, hitting one record high after the other. In November, it went over the 24,000 mark for the first time in history.

Many argue increases in stock market gains shouldn’t be used to gauge economic health on grounds they don’t help the middle class. This is a false claim. The stock market is more accessible than ever to everyday, middle-class Americans who are taking advantage of investment opportunities. Given the probability Social Security will be an empty wasteland upon retirement, despite paying into the program for decades, many Americans have made retirement savings a priority. Workers inside small and large businesses alike invest in 401k plans and individual retirement accounts. The sharp rise in the stock market has greatly benefited those with retirement accounts, where growth is dependent on the health of Wall Street. Many people currently retired rely completely on high investment returns as income. The stock market factor should not be discounted for political gain, but instead acknowledged as another beneficial factor for the middle class.

President Trump has delivered the long-awaited recovery Obama repeatedly promised but failed to accomplish. In return, Trump has also fulfilled his own campaign promises to get the economy moving again. Workers and business owners across the country are cheering.  

Pavlich is the editor for Townhall.com and a Fox News contributor.