Democrats Try to Undo the Best Part of Trump’s Legacy

Voters rejected his bad behavior. His policies on taxes and regulation were largely successful pre-pandemic

By Jason L. Riley. Excerpts:

"The reality is that when Mr. Trump wasn’t embarrassing himself, he was advancing a more or less traditional Republican agenda of lower taxes and lighter regulations. The upshot was an acceleration in economic activity, higher labor-force participation rates and narrowing racial inequality.

“During Trump’s first three years in office, median household incomes grew, inequality diminished, and the poverty rate among Black people fell below 20% for the first time in post-World War II records,” the Journal reported in October 2020. “The unemployment rate among Black people went under 6% for the first time in records going back to 1972.” Minorities weren’t the only beneficiaries of this boomlet. Between 2017 and 2019, wages for the bottom 10% of earners grew at more than double the rate they did during President Obama’s second term."

"The growth of gross domestic product during Mr. Obama’s final year in office was only about half of what it had been a year earlier"

"in 2017, 2018 and 2019, the unemployment rate came in below what the Federal Reserve had predicted, while GDP was higher than anticipated."

"the economy performed in the main just as administration officials and supply-side economic modeling predicted. Lower corporate tax rates were intended to reverse the downward trend in business investment, and following their implementation major companies announced wage hikes, bonuses and 401(k) match increases. In the two-year period after the 2017 tax reform passed, household incomes rose by more than they had in the previous eight years combined."