Posted on 04/11/2018 9:33:35 AM PDT by Kaslin
Donald Trump achieved the presidency telling the American people he would "Make America Great Again."
Given that during eight years of Barack Obama's presidency there was not a single year in which national satisfaction, as measured by Gallup, averaged above 30 percent, tapping into Americans' general dissatisfaction with the state of the nation was good campaign strategy.
This February, national satisfaction reached the highest its been under Trump, 36 percent. However, in March it plunged back down to 28 percent. And this big drop was fueled by a big drop among Republicans. National satisfaction among Republicans dropped from 67 percent in February to 52 percent in March.
Maybe there's reason to believe that Trump's own Republican constituency is not buying that tariff saber-rattling and trade protectionism is what is going to make America "great again."
The stock market surged some 30 percent from Trump's election until the beginning of 2018. However, since the beginning of this year, with all the trade war rhetoric, it's now down 8 percent.
Estimated overall value of the U.S. stock market early 2018 was around $30 trillion. So 8 percent deterioration means a loss of wealth of $2.4 trillion.
A price tag of $2.4 trillion in lost wealth to allegedly combat a $376 billion trade deficit with China with tariffs suggests that this might not be the best course of action.
The trade deficit is the supposed boogeyman. In 2017, we sold $130 billion in product to China and bought $506 billion from them -- a $376 billion trade deficit. Suppose China just decided to stop selling to us and just bought from us? We'd have a $130 billion surplus with them. Would that be good?
Americans are buying $506 billion in raw materials and consumer goods from China because we want this stuff. It makes us better off. We like the low-priced products from China we find in our department stores. And the raw materials we buy from them result in cheaper finished products that we manufacture here in the U.S.
According to economics blogger Mark Perry, "38 Americans work in industries using steel and aluminum for every worker making steel or aluminum."
Veronique de Rugy of George Mason University's Mercatus Center reports that when George W. Bush imposed tariffs on steel in 2002, 200,000 workers in industries using steel lost their jobs the following year -- more than the total number of jobs in the steel industry that year.
What was the 30 percent stock market gain from Trump's election until early 2018 telling us? I believe these gains reflected the deregulation over this period, capped off with passage of the tax bill in December 2017.
These are the kind of measures that "Make America Great Again." Measures that advance our economic freedom and move control of politicians and government out of our lives.
We lose when politicians start picking winners and losers, whether domestically or internationally. Let the marketplace pick winners and losers.
Where should we be directing our priorities now?
A group of Hoover Institution economists, including former Secretary of State George Shultz, just published an op-ed in The Washington Post about the dire implications of the looming debt crisis in our country.
They write that soon the national debt will reach $20 trillion -- equal to the size of our entire GDP. This poses a serious threat to our economic well-being.
New projections from the Congressional Budget Office forecast unprecedented trillion dollar federal budget deficits as far as the eye can see.
Unrestrained spending produces these huge deficits, which we finance with debt. The main culprit, according to the Hoover experts, is entitlement programs -- Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security.
I think the president should focus attention and energy on this debt crisis, rather than on the dubious benefits of a trade war. Getting America's fiscal house in order will make America great again.
Focusing on trade will help with the debt
If that jackwagon can’t work on both at the same time, then we have ourselves another obama
Sometimes you need to toss the elbows. MAGA!
Jackwagon?????????
Millions of his voters care deeply about the trade deficit.
They do not seem to care at all about the national debt.
Not a good thing, but that appears to be how it is.
Thanks Star! /s
I really wish FR had a function to block people.
“They write that soon the national debt will reach $20 trillion”
Adios 20.
Americans were not born to be economic slaves of the government via taxation.
“Socialism Is Legal Plunder” - The Law; Frederic Bastiat
OH MY GOODNESS YES.
Star Parker is not exactly the sharpest knife in the drawer. She is just responding to the dictates of her corporate paymasters.
The national debt didn’t destroy the middle class in the Midwest, bad trade deals did.
Is that you, Bill Kristol?
It would be "good" if those $376 billion in product were made in the US. The American worker would be the beneficiary along with the Treasury.
Exactly, Focus on the problem not the symptoms.
I don’t know a thing about economics, but it seems that fixing the trade problem would help fix the debt problem.
“We like the low-priced products from China we find in our department stores”
Much of the stuff from China isn’t low-priced.
They do not seem to care at all about the national debt.
Not a good thing, but that appears to be how it is.
Millions of voters also elected him to make the hard decisions. The trade deficit is not going to have the same impact on our economy as continued trillion dollar annual deficits will.
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