- Thursday, October 29, 2020

While the hysterical media is working tirelessly to convince the American and global public that Donald Trump has ushered in Armageddon, under the president’s leadership America and the world are significantly better off than before he assumed office in 2016. 

Unprecedented progress on Middle East peace is occurring, completely neglected by most news outlets that suffer from Trump Derangement Syndrome. Four million jobs have been created, many in the previously-moribund manufacturing sector. Now a new study has emerged showing a mind-blowing fact (mind-blowing against the backdrop of what the biased mainline media choose to cover up): Under the Trump administration, wealth inequality has declined for the first time in 30 years.  

A study released this week by the Baker Institute for Public Policy, based upon data collected from the Federal Reserve, obliterates the Democratic narrative that only the nation’s wealthiest have prospered under the Trump administration, concluding, “Wealth inequality rose persistently between 1992 and 2016 — a trend that saw a reversal in 2019. Income inequality also experienced the largest decline since 1992. Both changes are a result of gains in the total shares by lower deciles.”

“Between 2016 and 2019, real median family wealth grew 17.7% from $103,460 to $121,760.” While “broad measures of wealth grew over this time period, the dispersion of wealth contracted. But quite significant is the revelation that “wealth inequality in 2019 … . experienced its first decline since 1992.” Moreover, while all wealth groups performed well between 2016 and 2019, the data show especially large gains at the lower and middle deciles of the wealth distribution.

Other notable conclusions of the Baker Institute study also fly in the face of anti-Trump fantasies. Particularly, the president’s laudable corporate tax reform initiatives, which reduced the corporate tax rate from 35% to 21% only benefit “rich corporations.” 

In fact, “… higher corporate taxation shifts corporate income to noncorporate businesses, increasing the dispersion of income and generating a rise in income inequality — an outcome that would reverse with a decline in the corporate tax rate.” It cites yet another study that reveals “that the corporate tax cuts can actually generate gains in the share of total wealth held by households in the bottom 80% of the wealth distribution, leading to a reduction in wealth inequality. These findings support the connection between a decline in the corporate tax rate and a reduction in wealth and income inequality.”

To its credit, The Wall Street Journal also has reported on the decline of wealth inequality during the Trump era, though these figures don’t seem to have penetrated to the non-Fox cable networks or The New York Times. 

The Wall Street Journal reports, “Between 2016 and 2019, white, wealthy and college-educated households had relatively less income growth than other groups, the Fed notes, adding that “more broadly, the income gaps between families with a college degree and those without one decreased.”

Real median incomes grew 9% for Americans who haven’t completed high school and 6.3% for those with only a high school diploma while declining 2.3% among those with a college degree. So, too, The Journal reveals, during the Trump administration, among lowest wage earners, savings, homeownership and investments are up significantly, as well as striking “growth in business equity, especially among Blacks (138%), Hispanics (63%) and Americans without a high school diploma (104%).

Democrats and other Trump opponents go to extreme lengths to censor Mr. Trump’s many accomplishments. Everyone knows why. In a panicked last-ditch effort to avoid unelectable Bernie Sanders, they ended up with Joe Biden — a life-long politician with no accomplishments to speak of. Consequently, the mainstream media don’t report on Mr. Trump’s many wins and the decline of income inequality under Mr. Trump’s presidency is yet one more example.  

If the consequences of their actions weren’t so serious, outright falsehood such as Mr. Trump is racist or only helps the rich and corporations would be hilarious because the facts reveal the polar opposite.  

Most Americans are not as stupid as the mainstream media take them for. We still live in a land where our British-inherited core beliefs in the rule of law, free speech and individual liberty prevail. We still celebrate the time-proven principles of wealth creation for all classes: hard work, saving, investing and homeownership. Mr. Biden’s plans would destroy the trajectory of economic progress orchestrated by the Trump administration but concealed by the media.

Reelecting Mr. Trump, whose efforts have made the nation significantly safer and more prosperous, will continue to ensure more positive opportunities and increased wealth for Americans at all levels instead of pitting races and classes against one another.  

• Lee Cohen is a fellow of the U.K.’s Bow Group and of the Danube Institute. A specialist on the U.S-U.K. relationship, he formerly advised the House Committee on Foreign Affairs and founded the Congressional United Kingdom Caucus. He tweets at @leesco3.

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