If you're looking for work, this is the best job market in 50 years. The economy is soaring. But Democrats running for president are pitching plans that will destroy millions of jobs, doubling the number of people out of work. Consider "Medicare for All." It could wipe out a staggering 2.5 million health insurance and health care jobs nationwide…

Remember how Barack Obama repeatedly rationalized the economic malaise that defined his presidency by scapegoating everything from the 2011 Japanese tsunami to ATMs?  This was Obama in 2011, when it was already clear that his economic policies were failing:  There are some structural issues with our economy, where a lot of businesses have…

"The recession talk in late 2018 got way, way out of hand," New York Times economic reporter Neil Irwin tweeted a few days ago. Indeed it did. Irwin's tweet came shortly after the government released figures showing the economy grew at a 3.2% annual rate in the first three months of this year. The number was good by anyone's measure, significantly…

House Democrats are demanding the Internal Revenue Service hand over President Donald Trump's tax returns. Not that Speaker Nancy Pelosi or other Dems making the demand are willing to disclose their tax filings. Fat chance. Not in the House of Hypocrites. White House staff and the president's lawyers are making it crystal clear that Trump's returns…

If Trump thinks he can get more than 3% economic growth, he’s dreaming.   —Los Angeles Times economic columnist Michael Hiltzik, May 19, 2017  Expect a lot of boasting, but 3% growth is still nonsense.  —New York Times columnist Paul Krugman, January 28, 2018  Apparently, the budget forecasts that U.S. economic…

Should low-tax states like Tennessee, Texas or Florida subsidize high-tax states like New York, California or Illinois?  Indeed, do low-tax states even owe a moral duty to support their high-tax brethren states?  New York Governor Andrew Cuomo somehow thinks so.   He considers it “diabolical” and an “injustice…

Ever since Amazon's breakup with New York on Valentine's Day, dejected Mayor Bill De Blasio is complaining that corporations shouldn't be able to play off one local government against others for tax breaks. "I don't think it's really fair to pit city against city and state against state," De Blasio whined like a jilted suitor. Grow up, Mr…

Democrats, now the majority in the House of Representatives, are trying to turn that body into the House of Resistance. They vowed to use the State of the Union to voice their claims that the nation is in bad shape, rigged to benefit only the rich. But facts are stubborn things. Fact No. 1: An amazing 304,000 jobs were created in January, according…

After a decade of decline, the United States is finally enjoying a renaissance in economic freedom.  So says the just-released 2019 edition of the Heritage Foundation’s annual Index of Economic Freedom, which for twenty-five years has ranked the world’s nations in terms of property rights, rule of law, taxes, government spending,…

Leftist Democrats eyeing the White House in 2020 are plotting new ways to confiscate Americans' hard-earned money and give it away. Claiming economic inequality is a national crisis, they want to take money from those they say have too much. Senator Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., is pushing a wealth tax. Never mind that it's unprecedented and unconstitutional…

Some folks are born silver spoon in hand, Lord, don’t they help themselves, y’all? But when the tax man comes to the door, Lord, the house looks like a rummage sale, yeah… —Creedence Clearwater Revival, “Fortunate Son” Although more ‘60s-vintage hyperbole than economics textbook prose, CCR’s lyric…

The U.S. Department of Labor jobs report, released Friday, shows eye-popping gains, concluding a year that has been great for workers. Hourly wages shot up after 10 years of stagnation and real household income topped its highest level in history. Basically anyone who wants a job can get one. "If we're not right at full employment, we're very…

A relatively stable and sound economy has become the new normal, something too many of us are starting to take for granted. But just two years ago, things weren't quite so rosy.  As one trip back down Memory Lane, note this Wall Street Journal observation in a September 13, 2016 article entitled "CEOs See Sluggish Growth":  The…

In a contest too close to call, Republican gubernatorial candidate Bob Stefanowski is running to slash Connecticut taxes and bring Trumponomics to the state. The nation is watching to see whether a fiscal reformer can sell President Donald Trump's tax-cutting approach to voters who disdain Trump. Critics call Stefanowski's proposal to phase out the…

This month, for the first time since 2008, the United States regained its spot atop the World Economic Forum's annual ranking of the world's most competitive economies.  It's about time.  For eight long years during the Obama Administration, the United States endured the most sluggish cyclical economic "recovery" in recorded history…

This month, as expected, Canada agreed to join the trade accord reached earlier between the United States and Mexico, updating the 24-year-old North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA).  Although the fine print remains to be parsed as Congress moves toward ratification, one important fact is already clear:  the renegotiated accord constitutes…

The most striking difference between Democrats and Republicans is not their views on #MeToo, affirmative action or the Supreme Court. It's how they view the economy. Republicans deplore socialism. But more than half of Democrats view socialism favorably, according to a recent Gallup poll. The Democratic Party's left flank is turning the midterm elections…

It wasn't supposed to happen this way.  The 2016 election of Donald Trump was supposed to usher in an era of economic mismanagement and market decline, while our European exemplars flourished under their more enlightened socialized model.  The late satirist H.L. Mencken once observed, "Democracy is the theory that the common people…

"U.S. Has More Jobs Than Jobless." Savor for a moment that astonishing front-page headline this week from The Wall Street Journal.  Well into the second year of the Trump economy, America literally has more jobs than the number of people in the labor force to possibly fill them:    For the first time since such record…

When you read the budget message President Donald Trump sent Congress earlier this year, you soon come across a concession that Washington insiders have been making for years — just before they vote for bills they know will massively increase the federal debt. "The current fiscal path is unsustainable," Trump said, "and future…

Sen. Bernie Sanders is set to announce a plan that guarantees every American "who wants or needs one" a lifetime government job paying at least $15 an hour, with health insurance and other perks. This new progressive workforce will then, according to the Washington Post, build glorious "projects throughout the United States aimed at…

Here we go again. State politicians want to take more of your money. This time, their scheme is to tax everything you buy on the internet. On Tuesday, the money-grabbing states made their case to the United States Supreme Court. If the Justices go along with it, you'll be paying more when you make a purchase on eBay, Etsy, Amazon or another platform…

Do wealthier Americans pay their fair share in taxes?  The straightforward answer is "no," although for a very different reason than most people probably assume.  The reality is that the rich pay more than their fair share by any reasonable definition of "fair."  And here's a new kicker:  Following comprehensive…

President Donald Trump will reportedly name Larry Kudlow head of the White House National Economic Council. For fans of pro-growth policies — deregulation, low taxation and open trade — it's great news for obvious reasons. Kudlow has been a decadeslong champion of these ideas, and those with coherent philosophies tend to offer…

For eight long years, the United States suffered continual decline in economic freedom under Barack Obama.  Anyone seeking causation for the unprecedented economic malaise under his watch need look no further than that measure.  At the beginning of 2009, when Obama entered the White House, the U.S. ranked sixth in the Heritage Foundation…

The governors of New York, Connecticut and New Jersey joined forces last week to announce they're suing Uncle Sam. They're trying to torpedo the new $10,000 ceiling on how much state and local taxes their residents can deduct when paying federal income taxes. The three governors sounded like buffoons, making far-fetched claims that the $10,000 cap…

We experienced eight years of leftist economic policies under Barack Obama, and now a full year of deregulatory, low-tax economics under Donald Trump.  So based upon the accumulated evidence, which one works?  When even The New York Times can no longer deny the inescapable Trump Bump, you know that debate is over.  On January 1, the…

Renters came out winners under the new tax law. For over a century, the federal tax code catered to homeowners and treated renters like second-class citizens. Homeowners have been able to deduct interest on their mortgages and home equity loans, as well as property taxes. Meanwhile, everyone, including renters, footed the bill for these deductions…

According to political analysts, 2018 Democrats will use the just-passed tax reform as a way to argue that the Republican Party is the party of the plutocracy, which is another way of saying that Democrats are going to use the same argument they've been using for the past three decades with varying degrees of success. A number of liberals have claimed…

"Thanks, Obama!"  That was Barack Obama, speaking at a conference of mayors in Chicago last week, sarcastically congratulating himself for America's economic performance in the year since he departed.  Perhaps Obama finds himself desperate for attention and the artificial adoration to which he became accustomed as a candidate…