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Charles Gasparino: Trump’s economic boom bursts Democrats’ impeachment bubble



Democrats are obsessed with impeachment, and no wonder — they would rather not draw attention to President Trump’s economic success, nor their plan to upend it.

Friday’s stellar jobs report was yet another indication that the country is experiencing something that was missing during eight years of the Barack Obama presidency: an economic boom that has spread wealth beyond shareholders and the super-rich.

For all of Trump’s bad judgment in the Ukraine affair, which will undoubtedly lead to his impeachment in the House (despite low odds of conviction in the Senate), he has shown amazingly good judgment in economic policy by reversing years of over-regulation, overtaxing and other absurdities.

The proof is in the numbers: 3.5 percent unemployment, the lowest in about 50 years, strong wage growth and economic activity strong enough to have overwhelmed the deleterious effect of Trump’s various trade wars.

And yet, look at what the Democratic candidates for president want to do if they can beat Trump: just about anything and everything to reverse his policies.

Start with the alleged moderate in the top-tier of the Democratic field, former Vice President Joe Biden. Biden is calling for a significant expansion of the welfare state, and higher taxes to pay for stuff like his ill-defined clean-energy initiatives, infrastructure expansion and much more.

Individual rates will go up for those making more than $500,000 a year, and he has spoken about the need to raise corporate taxes. And, yes, Biden wants to increase capital gains taxes — all stuff that will reduce job creation (many small businesses file as individuals) and investment, two of the hallmarks of the Trump recovery.

Even worse, Biden has spoken in the past about implementing a middle-class tax hike, by lifting the cap on the Social Security portion of payroll tax that could include all wages above the current cap of $132,900.

All of which means the average American will be taking it on the chin even if the “moderate” Joe Biden finds his way into the White House.

Things quickly go from bad to worse when you consider the tax plans of the other Democrats. Elizabeth Warren, for her part, has thrown out there a bunch of half-baked spending proposals that would add trillions to the national debt, and necessitate a massive tax increase on possibly every income bracket.

Again her plans are mostly vague, until she starts talking about how she will tax the rich. Her top tax rate for the highest income earners, when you factor in capital gains taxes, a special wealth tax and a lot more, could reach 100 percent.

No this is not the old Soviet Union, it’s Elizabeth Warren’s version of the USA.

Bernie Sanders has his own ideas on how to redistribute wealth, which seem a lot like Warren’s (both want to raise around $20 trillion in new taxes over the next decade to fund a new utopian government), only he also wants to specially target the country’s richest families and force them into some kind of “national wealth registry,” as if it’s a black mark to be successful.

One bright spot: The 2020 election will decided not by woke Democrats, or even Trump’s rabid support base. It will be decided by people in the middle, who are enjoying a strong economy and rising wages brought by policies that are the antithesis of the current mainstream Democratic Party orthodoxy. They may not like Trump’s comportment, but they like jobs.

My guess, once the 2020 campaign starts in earnest, these voters will look at the Democrat alternatives, hold their nose and vote for Trump because it’s the economy, stupid.

Charles Gasparino is a senior correspondent at Fox Business Network.


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Posted: December 6, 2019 Friday 10:11 PM