Andy Puzder: Ah, the irony of impeachment ... look how Trump policies work for Dem voters
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}While Democrats pursue their partisan crusade to impeach President Trump, their own constituents continue to benefit from his policies in the form of new jobs and better wages, reduced income inequality, a more equitable criminal justice system, and — at long last — real progress toward curbing the opioid crisis.
Perhaps that’s why 27 percent of those who signed up for tickets to the Trump pre-election rally in Mississippi were registered Democrats, and n Kentucky, 23 percent were Democrats.
Let’s start with the undeniably strong (and still growing!) Trump economy. The latest employment data are solid across all socio-economic groups, but especially for minorities.
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African American unemployment reached an all time low of 5.4 percent in October, resulting in the smallest gap between black and white unemployment rates ever recorded. The Hispanic unemployment rate likewise reached an all-time low of 3.9 percent in September, and the Hispanic-American labor force participation rate reached its highest level in a decade the following month.
The left is fanatical about enforcing equal outcomes, and yet Democrats are trying desperately to get rid of a president whose policies have reduced economic disparities between racial groups to the lowest level in American history.
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Not surprisingly, income inequality – a major Democrat bugaboo – is also declining. Contrary to fake news accounts, the Census Bureau’s recommended report on income and poverty recently found that income inequality declined slightly in 2018 using a traditional measure. It also applied a more thorough “equivalency” measure and found a “statistically significant” decline. In fact, the share of household income actually increased the most for the lowest 20 percent of earners (3.4 percent) while the top 20 percent was the only quintile to experience a decrease.
In addition to the strongest job market in half a century, Trump achieved the most significant criminal justice reforms in at least a generation last year.
As the data shows, jobs are plentiful, and wages are rising – particularly for working-class Americans – even as the global slowdown has kept GDP growth from matching the strength of the labor market. Third Quarter corporate earnings were stronger than expected and the stock market reached new all-time highs last week, raising the value of retirement plans and sending consumers into the holiday shopping season with more money to spend.
Much of this economic success is the result of President Trump’s historic tax cuts for middle-income Americans and his swift elimination of unnecessary government regulations — and the rest is due to the progress he’s made in other policy areas, such as historic new trade deals and a focus on domestic energy.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}In addition to the strongest job market in half a century, Trump achieved the most significant criminal justice reforms in at least a generation last year, addressing a long-standing priority of many Democratic voters. The First Step Act reduces sentences for certain drug felonies and other non-violent crimes, fixes the sentencing disparity between crack and powder cocaine, and allows prisoners to more easily earn early-release credits for participating in educational programs that help prepare them for life outside prison.
One reason the president was such an avid proponent of the First Step Act is that his own experience watching his brother die from alcoholism taught him that punishing addicts is not an effective way to prevent substance abuse, something many liberals have long believed, as well.
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{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Democrats tout “safe injection sites” as a politically correct response to the opioid epidemic, but facilitating drug addiction is even worse than ignoring the problem. Trump’s comprehensive approach, on the other hand, is actually working.
For the first time in 29 years, total drug overdoses in America finally declined in July, falling by 5 percent thanks to the bipartisan Support for Patients and Communities Act that President Trump signed last year. The Support Act has modernized and expanded addiction treatment, and is funding crucial research into alternative pain medications that could eventually eliminate the need for addictive opioid medications.
But don’t expect to hear about these bipartisan achievements from the anti-Trump media. Democrats are trying desperately to humiliate and unseat a president who’s done more for their voters in less than three years than they themselves ever have.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}The resolution House Democrats belatedly passed last month – without a single Republican vote – authorizing the “impeachment inquiry” that House Speaker Nancy Pelosi had already unilaterally declared only confirms the deeply partisan political nature of their latest witch hunt.
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As the Democrats and their Trump-hating media allies are well aware, there is no possibility that the required 20 Senate Republicans would vote to remove a sitting Republican president – who has done nothing impeachable – from office. This is all about trying to manufacture bad publicity for the president going into the 2020 election. Period.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}If Democrats in this do-nothing Congress really cared for the people they supposedly represent, they’d get back to work on important issues, such as passing the US-Mexico-Canada trade deal, lowering the cost of prescription drugs or coming up with health care proposals that might actually work outside the Progressive’s Socialist fairy land. Those are the issues Americans actually care about and the issues Democrats are ignoring.