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
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