Fox News’ Will Cain on the impact of President Trump testing positive for coronavirus.
Like the economy he created, President Trump is healthy and strong and can recover quickly from coronavirus. On behalf of the entire business community, we wish him a speedy recovery.
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President Trump’s efforts have created the best economy in recent American history. New Census Bureau and Federal Reserve reports show a record increase in American median earnings (especially for minorities), a historic fall in the poverty rate, and reducing income inequality in 2019.
These are just the latest indicators of how the Trump economy’s foundations are well-built and can withstand a pandemic shock — to the nation and its leader.
There’s no good time for an economy or a president to get hit with a pandemic, but if it has to occur, it couldn’t have happened at a better time to a more robust economy or president. (Imagine the national turmoil if this had taken place during the Obama/Biden administration.)
President Trump is now presiding over one of the fastest economic recoveries in the nation’s history. His capital ‘V’-shaped rally is helping Americans quickly get back on their feet, a stark contrast to the slowest recovery in the nation’s history under Obama and Biden following the Great Recession.
Though buried by today’s COVID-19 news, the Labor Department released its monthly jobs report today, revealing that the national unemployment rate has fallen below eight percent — nearly a 50 percent drop in just five months. This is a remarkable achievement. The unemployment rate didn’t get below eight percent under Obama and Biden’s leadership until September 2012 — nearly four years after they were elected.
This unemployment rate isn’t just a number. It represents real lives and livelihoods. And it was achieved thanks to President Trump making difficult decisions. For instance, it would have been easy for Trump to agree to continue supplemental $600 a week federal unemployment benefits as Democrats demanded.
Yet the president’s good sense recognized that this program was creating a disincentive to getting Americans back to work, propping up the unemployment rate. So he fought hard to rein this program in. And the unemployment rate fell significantly as a result.
The president also helped spearhead the Paycheck Protection Program, one of the most successful government aid efforts in the nation’s history. The PPP distributed more than $500 billion worth of forgivable loans to more than five million small businesses, saving over 50 million jobs. (Congress should extend this vital lifeline to small businesses still afflicted by the Covid-19 pandemic.)
Joe Biden would threaten this recovery and the robust American economy if elected. As he reiterated in this week’s presidential debate, he’s open to shutting down the economy again — a move that would devastate American small businesses. He also seems to have little interest in restoring law and order to Main Streets, which have been infected by left-wing riots and violence in recent months, putting another burden on businesses.
Biden wants dramatic tax increases that would suck resources out of communities to Washington.
He’s proposed significant tax increases on small businesses operating as pass-throughs. He has called for a 33 percent tax increase on small businesses structured as corporations. And he wants to eliminate the cap on payroll taxes, creating an onerous new tax burden on employers and employees alike.
Such taxes, combined with his desired radical energy and labor regulations, would cut American small businesses out at their knees.
Biden already had a chance to lead the country through an economic recovery. He failed and doesn’t deserve a second chance.
We hope President Trump makes a swift recovery so that he can quickly return to the campaign trail and make this case directly to voters.
American presidents embody the nation; never has a president done so more effectively for the economy than President Trump. Both he and his economy can withstand this virus. Bernie Marcus is retired co-founder of the Home Depot and founder of the Job Creators Network.
OTTAWA – The parliamentary budget officer says the federal government likely failed to keep its deficit below its promised $40 billion cap in the last fiscal year.
However the PBO also projects in its latest economic and fiscal outlook today that weak economic growth this year will begin to rebound in 2025.
The budget watchdog estimates in its report that the federal government posted a $46.8 billion deficit for the 2023-24 fiscal year.
Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland pledged a year ago to keep the deficit capped at $40 billion and in her spring budget said the deficit for 2023-24 stayed in line with that promise.
The final tally of the last year’s deficit will be confirmed when the government publishes its annual public accounts report this fall.
The PBO says economic growth will remain tepid this year but will rebound in 2025 as the Bank of Canada’s interest rate cuts stimulate spending and business investment.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 17, 2024.
OTTAWA – Statistics Canada says the level of food insecurity increased in 2022 as inflation hit peak levels.
In a report using data from the Canadian community health survey, the agency says 15.6 per cent of households experienced some level of food insecurity in 2022 after being relatively stable from 2017 to 2021.
The reading was up from 9.6 per cent in 2017 and 11.6 per cent in 2018.
Statistics Canada says the prevalence of household food insecurity was slightly lower and stable during the pandemic years as it fell to 8.5 per cent in the fall of 2020 and 9.1 per cent in 2021.
In addition to an increase in the prevalence of food insecurity in 2022, the agency says there was an increase in the severity as more households reported moderate or severe food insecurity.
It also noted an increase in the number of Canadians living in moderately or severely food insecure households was also seen in the Canadian income survey data collected in the first half of 2023.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct 16, 2024.
OTTAWA – Statistics Canada says manufacturing sales in August fell to their lowest level since January 2022 as sales in the primary metal and petroleum and coal product subsectors fell.
The agency says manufacturing sales fell 1.3 per cent to $69.4 billion in August, after rising 1.1 per cent in July.
The drop came as sales in the primary metal subsector dropped 6.4 per cent to $5.3 billion in August, on lower prices and lower volumes.
Sales in the petroleum and coal product subsector fell 3.7 per cent to $7.8 billion in August on lower prices.
Meanwhile, sales of aerospace products and parts rose 7.3 per cent to $2.7 billion in August and wood product sales increased 3.8 per cent to $3.1 billion.
Overall manufacturing sales in constant dollars fell 0.8 per cent in August.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 16, 2024.
