BloggeRhythms

By almost any reasonable projection, it would be hard to assume that the new POTUS will have many better days in his term of office than the last two. 

While the House passage of the Obamacare repeal and replacement gained most of the headline coverage, economic news continued its improvement. 

Jeff Cox writes @cnbc.com: “Job creation in April bounced back from a disappointing March, with nonfarm payrolls growing by 211,000 while the unemployment rate fell to 4.4 percent, its lowest since May 2007 a 10-year low.”

Results significantly exceeded economists surveyed by Reuters who’d been expecting payroll growth of 185,000 and the jobless rate to tick up to 4.6 percent. Payroll increases “nearly tripled the dismal March number.”

Additionally: “The number of employed Americans set a third straight monthly record in April, increasing by 156,000 to 153,156,000,” while “wages grew seven cents an hour to an annualized pace of 2.5 percent.”

The labor force participation rate edged lower to 62.9 percent as the “employment-to-population ratio increased to 60.2 percent, its best showing of 2017 and the highest level since February 2009.”

Brian Coulton, chief economist at Fitch Ratings said: “This just adds to the perception that it's going to be easier and easier to find a job if you want one these days. It's job security that causes people to ask for wage rises. If it's easier for them to get a job outside their company, they're more likely to push for higher wages."

Another strong indication of job market improvement is found in the U-6 unemployment rate which includes those not actively looking for jobs as well as those working part-time for economic reasons. The rate “dropped to 8.6 percent from 8.9 percent in March, the best reading since November 2007.” 

What the results project for the future can be found in an item from Eric Morath @wsj.com who writes: “Strong hiring supports the projection that economic growth is accelerating this spring. Many economic forecasters expect the annual growth rate in gross domestic product to accelerate to better than 3% for the April through June period, from the modest 0.7% pace of the first quarter. The Federal Reserve and other economists project overall growth in 2017 to settle near 2%, its pace for most of this expansion.” 

That compares to Obama whose average GDP growth rate was 1.6 percent from 2009-2016.

As far as health care’s concerned, according to Steve Holland and Richard Cowan @reuters.com yesterday: “In White House talks with Republican Representatives Fred Upton and Billy Long, Trump helped to nail down critical moderate votes.”

What comes through in the article is the further evidence of how Trump is using long-gained business experience regarding pragmatism to his advantage once again, whereas: “A senior White House official said Trump worked the phones this time and realized it had been a mistake to set a deadline the first time. Trump spoke with Speaker Paul Ryan, the leading House Republican, during late-night calls.” 

When no amendment had been hammered out by Tuesday “and Upton, an influential moderate, said he opposed the bill, as did Long, a close Trump ally. Trump called them both to the White House.

“At their meeting on Wednesday, Upton and Long reminded Trump of his promise in a weekend television interview that the Republican plan would protect people with pre-existing medical conditions. They pressed him to stand by that commitment and it worked. Trump endorsed their amendment to add some money to the Republican bill for that purpose.” 

In regard to Trump’s involvement: “White House spokeswoman Sarah Huckabee Sanders said Trump had 15 to 20 meetings or calls with House Republicans ahead of the vote. She said the president was "directly engaged." 

Ms Sanders insightful description of Trump’s role is particularly interesting when compared to comments from the increasingly irrelevant Chuck Schumer, written about by Penny Starr @breitbart.com today, as follows: 

Schumer said,“Our Republican colleagues I give them a lot of credit — Mitch McConnell — we worked very well together — Leader Pelosi, Speaker Ryan as well,” adding the names of the Democrats and Republicans in both chambers responsible for leading on appropriations.

“We all worked as a team,” Schumer said. “And we came up with a very good solution for the people here. 

“Unfortunately the president did not play much of a role — much of a positive role — in these budget negotiations, but hopefully, that may change because the results have been so good and so fine,” Schumer said.

While Schumer’s continual disparaging of Trump is a foregone conclusion by now, one has to wonder what he’s babbling about when he says “we worked very well together” on the solution. Because in the final count,  all 193 Democrats opposed the bill, as did 20 Republicans.

And then, on another subject, Rush raised a quite interesting point yesterday regarding foreign influence on elections.

Rush said: "Anyway, Barack Hussein O has endorsed the 39-year-old playboy running for the presidency of France, Emmanuel Macron. So this is a last-minute…

“I mean, the election is three days from now, so that’d be Sunday. So the election here, folks… So Obama here with a last-minute intervention in the French election. This is not supposed to be kosher. We’re not supposed to be doing this! I mean, this is akin to what the Russians did. The Russians are trying to impact the outcome of our election; Obama’s trying to impact the outcome of the French election. But there doesn’t seem to be a whole lot of people upset.” 

Now, it’s anyone’s guess as to where this observation will lead, particularly since the MSM will almost certainly ignore the issue completely. However, it will surely be interesting to see the Democrats reaction if the blatant hypocrisy gains any traction at all.  
 
Rush’s analysis leads right into today’s final item, which addresses the left’s organizing of marches in protest of almost anything perceived as untoward to them. 

Written by Erick Erickson a Fox News contributor, he hosts "Erick on the Radio" and is founder/editor of The Resurgent and founder of RedState.com.

Mr. Erickson begins: “We have had a Women’s March, then a March for Science, then an Earth Day March, which was not the same thing as the March for Science, and now there will be a “March for Truth” to demand an investigation on Trump’s ties to Russia.

“Who the hell has that much time to march?” 

Noting that the left “has decided to make protest their permanent campaign headed into 2018,” Erickson explains that “normal Americans have lives, are working, and don’t have time to drop everything to march all the time.” And from there, he offers several productive alternatives for “leftwing” activists.   

“Instead of marches, these people could be productive members of society. Though they are keeping paint makers, sharpie marker makers, and poster board manufacturers in business, these are mostly college kids, their professors, and paid union activists. Because they have degrees in things like Womyn & Gender Studies, Queer Theory, and Puppetry Arts, they are practicing being unemployed to get used to their future. While doing it, however, they are clogging up the streets for the rest of us and making traffic miserable. 

“Instead of marching, the rest of us will be in the real world enjoying our families and contributing to the economy. No normal, sane person has enough time for all this marching about. Only in the leftwing bubble thinks is it meaningful.” 

And in his last sentence, Mr. Erickson provides his own, perhaps unrealized, rationale for why leftist behavior manifests itself as it does. Because he’s absolutely correct in his premise that: “No normal, sane person has enough time for all this marching about. Only in the leftwing bubble thinks is it meaningful.” 

Which is also why all of them -including leadership by the likes of one as deluded as Schumer- are primarily talking to themselves. 

That’s it for today folks. 

Adios