Sept. 4, 2020
Permission to republish original opeds and cartoons granted.
Trump economy adds another 3.7 million jobs in August with 13.8 million total jobs recovered since April as rapid recovery continues
The U.S. economy added another 3.7 million jobs in the month of
August, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ household survey of
Americans reporting they have jobs, bringing the total up to 13.8 million jobs
that have been recovered since labor markets bottomed in April, something
almost nobody but President Donald Trump was predicting. The news comes as
COVID-19 cases continue to stabilize nationwide. At the worst of the
coronavirus recession, as many as 25 million jobs were lost by April, and now more
than half of those jobs have been regained, as a V-shaped recovery has formed. For
perspective, in the Obama-Biden economy, it took almost five years to recover
the 8 million jobs that were lost in the financial crisis and Great Recession. In
just four short months, well more than 12 million jobs have come back in the Trump-Pence
economy — thanks to President Trump’s leadership to stabilize the pandemic and
get the U.S. economy safely reopened for business.
Cartoon: The Puppeteers
Joe Biden’s biggest supporters are inciting violence.
Video: Exxon Mobil's Cautionary Tale: Don't Feed the Crocodiles
WATCH: Exxon Mobil lost its prestigious place on the Dow Jones
Industrial Average. Americans for Limited Government believes this is a direct
result of Exxon Mobil's decision to cozy up to the Green New Deal crowd. Have oil
companies been feeding the radical environmentalist crocodiles?
As Trump takes on China on trade reciprocity, time for a second look at zero for zero on sugar and other agricultural subsidies
Over the past three decades, prior to President Donald Trump’s
election in 2016, U.S. manufacturing and production, and agriculture, has been
outsourced to foreign trade partners. There are many factors that have fueled
this shift towards globalization: trade agreements and legislation including
NAFTA and permanent normal trade relations with China, U.S. capital investment
overseas in emerging markets, cheap foreign labor, currency devaluation and
dumping by foreign trade partners and so forth. Trade subsidies hurt American
industries, including agriculture. In 2017, the Trump administration Commerce
Department successfully negotiated a settlement between the U.S. and Mexico,
and Mexican sugar producers to “prevent dumping of Mexican sugar and corrects
for subsidies the Mexican sugar industry receives… address[ing] the concerns of
the U.S. sugar industry and prevents harm to other U.S. industries, including
confectioners, beverage producers, and corn growers, that might have resulted
if no agreement were reached.” Often, the only way to shore up U.S. producers
when foreign countries subsidize their goods, whether manufacturing or
agriculture, is with offsetting duties — or a reciprocal trade agreement where
both sides agree to lower their subsidies. That is why the U.S. Trade
Representative should negotiate through the World Trade Organization a zero for
zero reciprocal agreement to end global agriculture subsidies and eliminate
dumping into U.S. markets with an initial focus on sugar.
Video: Conservative teen social media star Savannah Lynn gives ALG ‘the savvy truth’
We sat down with Savannah Lynn, a 16-year-old social media
sensation and asked her about the type of hate she deals with. We also asked
for her take on the conventions and how other young conservatives can handle
themselves in this divided nation.
Trump economy adds another 3.7 million jobs in August with 13.8 million total jobs recovered since April as rapid recovery continues
By Robert Romano
The U.S. economy added another 3.7 million jobs in the month of August, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ household survey of Americans reporting they have jobs, bringing the total up to 13.8 million jobs that have been recovered since labor markets bottomed in April, something almost nobody but President Donald Trump was predicting.
The news comes as COVID-19 cases continue to stabilize nationwide, including in Texas, California, Florida and Arizona where cases saw a brief uptick this summer.
At the worst of the coronavirus recession, as many as 25 million jobs were lost by April, and now more thanhalf of those jobs have been regained, as a V-shaped recovery has clearly formed.
In just four short months, almost 14 million jobs have come back in the Trump-Pence economy — thanks to President Trump’s leadership to stabilize the pandemic and get the U.S. economy safely reopened for business.
For perspective, in the Obama-Biden economy, it took almost five years to recover the 8 million jobs that were lost in the financial crisis and Great Recession.
The reason is President Trump had the considerable foresight to work with Congress to implement necessary economic supports, including payroll protection for 5.2 million small businesses that Trump credited with the recovery in his acceptance speech stating, “Thanks to our Paycheck Protection Program, we have saved or supported more than 50 million American jobs. That’s one of the reasons that we’re advancing so rapidly with our economy.”
In addition, unemployment benefits were expanded, critical industries such as airlines were supported and state and local governments were reinforced. Foreclosures and evictions were postponed, and banks were encouraged to grant homeowners forbearance on their mortgages. All this in a bid to encourage Americans to temporarily stay home while an adequate pandemic response including testing and ventilator production was put into place.
Looking forward, on the pandemic side of the question, the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation is projecting cases they will remain relatively stable until mid-to-late September when the cold and flu season gets going again.
Also of note, on the establishment survey which asks employers how many people are on the payroll, businesses report 10.6 million jobs recovered since April. The difference between the two surveys is the establishment survey doesn’t count everyone like those self-employed. For that reason in February before the pandemic closures, the household survey reported 158.75 million Americans having jobs, while the establishment survey reported 152.46 million Americans working. Those differences are well-known, and it might mean the household survey is more relevant to the American people.
The U.S. economy contracted an annualized, inflation-adjusted 31.7 percent in the second quarter as the pandemic was washing over us, according to the Bureau of Economic Analysis. Now, the Atlanta Federal Reserve is projecting a 29.6 percent expansion of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in the third quarter — the last major economic report that will be released right before the election. The Trump-led jobs recovery is clearly what’s playing into that.
With more good news, an additional 765,000 Americans left unemployment the week of Aug. 22, according to the latest data from the Department of Labor. Because that is occurring later in the month, it may not fully factor into the monthly data until the September jobs report out the first week of October.
Meaning, when the September report gets factored in, it should be another gangbuster number. On March 25, the President predicted, “I don’t think it’s going to end up being such a rough patch. I think it’s going to, when we open — especially, if we can open it — the sooner, the better — it’s going to open up like a rocket ship. I think it’s going to go very good and very quickly.”
President Trump was right, and now there is no stopping the economic recovery. In fact, this is unquestionably the most rapid economic recovery in American history. It should benefit him politically as the presidential campaign against former Vice President Joe Biden wears on. Stay tuned.
Robert Romano is the Vice President of Public Policy at Americans for Limited Government.
Cartoon: The Puppeteers
Click here for a higher level resolution version.
Video: Exxon Mobil's Cautionary Tale: Don't Feed the Crocodiles
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=02wdeHWKiUQ
As Trump takes on China on trade reciprocity, time for a second look at zero for zero on sugar and other agricultural subsidies
By Rick Manning
Over the past three decades, prior to President Donald Trump’s election in 2016, U.S. manufacturing and production, and agriculture, has been outsourced to foreign trade partners. There are many factors that have fueled this shift towards globalization: trade agreements and legislation including NAFTA and permanent normal trade relations with China, U.S. capital investment overseas in emerging markets, cheap foreign labor, currency devaluation and dumping by foreign trade partners and so forth.
But one often overlooked element has been subsidies.
In the case of China, yes, Beijing has had very high tariffs on U.S. goods. Yes, China used child and forced slave labor. Yes, China manipulates its currency, the yuan, devaluing it to lower the costs of its exports and engage in dumping. But, China also massively subsidizes industrial production and manufacturing in its state-owned-and-run communist system — further putting U.S. producers at a competitive disadvantage globally.
To address Chinese tariff and non-tariff trade barriers, President Donald Trump got China to agree to a phase one trade deal even though there’s still a 25 percent tariff on $250 billion of goods and another 7.5 percent on the remaining $300 billion of goods being levied, and even as the trade in goods deficit with China collapsed by more than 17.6 percent in 2019, or $73.9 billion.
The Trump-levied tariffs help offset the currency manipulation, tariffs and subsidies that China uses—creating a more fair and reciprocal trade deals. In addition, since 2017, the Commerce Department has initiated numerous antidumping and countervailing duties cases against China.
According to a Capital Trade Incorporated assessment submitted to the U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Congressional Commission in 2009, China uses subsidies for absolute control industries in “armaments, power generation and distribution, oil and petrochemicals, telecommunications, coal, civil aviation, and shipping” as “being strategic and of vital importance to the proper function of China’s safety and economic well-being,” and for heavyweight industries in “machinery, automobiles, information technology, construction, and iron & steel and non-ferrous metals” as of importance to the domestic economy.
According to the assessment, “Tax subsidies, preferential loans, and grants are the most common form of subsidy. The government also provides favorable input prices and transfers assets to favored firms at prices that are below market value.”
And the subsidies most certainly hurt U.S. manufacturers: “By their very nature, subsidies are distortive. Strategic subsidies, which seem geared to accelerate China’s economic development, have competitive effects because they reduce the costs of the favored Chinese firms relative to firms in the United States and other countries. In competitive international markets, such subsidies would be expected to increase economic activity of favored industries in China relative to activity in the United States. This means higher levels of Chinese output and exports and lower levels of U.S. output and exports.”
Similarly, trade subsidies hurt other American industries, including agriculture. In 2017, the Trump administration Commerce Department successfully negotiated a settlement between the U.S. and Mexico, and Mexican sugar producers to “prevent dumping of Mexican sugar and corrects for subsidies the Mexican sugar industry receives… address[ing] the concerns of the U.S. sugar industry and prevents harm to other U.S. industries, including confectioners, beverage producers, and corn growers, that might have resulted if no agreement were reached.”
What both cases show is that the only way to shore up U.S. producers when foreign countries subsidize their goods, whether manufacturing or agriculture, is with offsetting duties — or a reciprocal trade agreement where both sides agree to lower their subsidies.
That is why the U.S. Trade Representative should negotiate through the World Trade Organization a zero for zero reciprocal agreement to end global agriculture subsidies and eliminate dumping into U.S. markets with an initial focus on sugar.
In addition, there is zero for zero legislation in Congress that would require the President to certify that when countries that exported more than 200,000 metric tons of sugar in 2016, 2017, or 2018 and any other country we have a free trade agreement have eliminated their subsidies, to then propose legislation to eliminate ours.
This would give President Trump additional leverage to work his art of the deal and put forth a plan to end U.S. subsidies as soon as he certifies that foreign competitors have ended theirs. This fair and reciprocal approach fits squarely in the President’s America first trade agenda, and will ensure that global agriculture markets can finally become freer and more importantly — fairer by putting U.S. farmers interests first.
Rick Manning is the President of Americans for Limited Government.
Video: Conservative teen social media star Savannah Lynn gives ALG ‘the savvy truth’
