Why Obama deserves a little credit for the Trump Boom, and why the Democrats will never admit it

September 9, 2018

It's real, and it is humiliating

Why Obama deserves a little credit for the Trump Boom, and why the Democrats will never admit it

By Thomas Lifson

It is actually pathetic that Barack Obama is trying to claim credit for the Trump Boom that began with the stock market jumping the moment Trump’s election was clear, and which has continued to generate jobs – especially the manufacturing jobs that Obama told us were not coming back. He is following the Big Lie approach, thinking that repetition of this baseless claim would eventually get people to believe it.

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That said, the very reason his claim is false actually did help make the Trump Boom more pronounced. Obama shackled existing businesses and entrepreneurs contemplating new businesses with tax increases and years’ worth of red tape. That’s why his recovery from the 2008 financial shock was the slowest recovery from a recession on record.
But during this period, technological innovation did not stop, nor did opportunities for business projects stop developing in the minds of people who would carry them out, should the business environment (taxes + regulations) improve. There was, in other words, a substantial backlog of business opportunities that built up during the 8 years of Obama’s oppressive anti-business policies.
That backlog was available for investment, once President Trump cleared away the shackles. Without 8 years of suppression, there would not have been as big a backlog of good projects waiting for realization.
If course, Dems will never admit that Obama suppressed economic growth, and that helped Trump look even better. It’s analogous to the relief the apocryphal man hitting his head with a hammer feels once he stops. The absence of harm makes what follows feel even bette