Strong economy in Wisconsin? I guess my neighbor farmers in Wisconsin don't count for much anymore. We'll all be out of business before 2020 anyway, thanks to the tariffs and climate change.
10
As long as the standard is a marginally educated person being minimally better off economically, we will remain vulnerable to republican candidates who keep these folks poor, frightened and blaming "the elites" for their insecurity. What needs to change is anti-intellectualism, the family value that may yet take this country down. We need to demand and fund (yes, through taxes) post high school education for all of our citizens.
6
Next year's election is not a referendum on the economy (unless it goes south between now and then, still a possibility). It's a referendum on Trump, pure and simple. The polling here in Wisconsin suggests that Trump's approval rating is deep underwater (minus 13 points), among the worst of any swing state in the country. My perception among my neighbors here is a sense of "Trump fatigue" bordering on exhaustion.
10
The Democrats have to develop extensive field operations in the battleground states. Organizers need to hit the ground running in early 2020 with thorough voter registration campaigns that become massive Get Out The Vote efforts as election day gets closer.
This election will be won "on the ground", not through television ads aimed at people who have already made up their minds.
Don't whine, organize !
5
The readers keep citing Trump’s approval ratings as if the polls directly correlate to his chances at the polls. First of all there’s the lesson of the electoral college which Hillary never learned. Then there’s a question about the Democratic field of candidates who seem to be vying with one another to cater to the left. Not a good sign. But most important you don’t have to “approve” a candidate to vote for him if you think his opponent’s policies will jeopardize what you are used to having. Just ask anyone if they feel like giving up their private insurance or Medicare for a single payer system so that they can wait in line behind an illegal. Will they really believe “If you like your doctor, you can keep your doctor”—? If you don’t think Trump won’t successfully make an issue of this, you’re deluding yourself.
7
"....Despite the good economic numbers, Mr. Trump will be trying to achieve something no president has done in modern times: win re-election without ever reaching 50 percent in Gallup’s job approval rating ..."
Well, POTUS has been a mold breaker at this presidential politics from the start - his only ever run for an office. The only American ever to have done so - except Washington.
So, all these rules, cliches, punditry - long enshrined by political pundits - have been thrown out the window.
Heck, prominent Republicans - including our own most recent nominee - publicly joined Never Trump movement.
Of course, Hillary and and the alleged Deep State threw everything at him including the kitchen sink - oh, less I forget the Russian collusion - and he still prevailed.
The real age old rule of politics is that the world over - folks respond to a leader who delivers on economy.
And hard to believe but even Putin believes in that. He primed the pump in his own way to get reelected.
So, let's hold all these cliches till next year.
And then, this POTUS will have helped enshrine more cliches or throw them under the bus - on why he got reelected by beating a sure bet Democrat again.
4
And when those tax cuts disappear because the weren’t designed to support the middle class? And when dairy farmers are forced out of business because of unnecessary tariff power plays against Canada...”where’s the cheese” might also have a local negative economic impact.
I truly hope that America wakes up so that they don’t accept pie-in-the-sky campaign rhetoric and aren’t so deaf and blind from drinking the bogus economic KoolAid offered by Trump and FoxNews that they lose the heritage and economy they have held for decades. Trump has promised a banquet but has not done anything to provide the real meal. The sugar high of momentary economic strength caused by the momentum of actions taken during the previous administration’s response to the Recession will not last forever.
Remember that Trump’s experience and “success” is in a field where coming out richer is the end goal, and the responsibility ends when the deal is signed. Governing and strategy for enduring success require more attention and knowledge than he has exhibited.
Beware, Wisconsin voters. That new shiny promise of financial security may be as amorphous as a rainbow or have the sharp blade of a guillotine hidden within.
6
Trump lied so much about the economy during the 2016 campaign that most Republicans thought the Obama economy was poor. Once he took office, all Trump had to do was embrace the official data that he said was phony during the campaign. Trump attacked Obama for not having even one year with growth above 3%, but Trump has done no better. GDP growth was 2.9% in 2015 and 2.9% last year. If you reside in Republican bizarro world, 2018 was "booming" and 2015 was not.
8
If average Americans continue to see trends maintaining full employment, better self supporting financial security, and hard nosed trade policies reversing decades of intellectual property theft and foreign protectionism, large swaths of the country will ignore President Trump's personal foibles. The theology of political decorum won't matter nearly as much as the chattering class on TV and in politics expect it to.
If the resist movement in the Democrat party continues it's strident tone, they will lose the very voters they need to prevail.
In the end, for the folks charting their own path and who just want government out of their way, whether DJT wins or not probably won't matter, but career politicians ignore the deep discontent that propelled him to the Oval Office in 2016 at their peril.
3
Raw statistics with complete disregard of the quality of life and people’s lives.
I can think of another period of even lower unemployment—
the antebellum South.
Zero unemployment in the shave quarters...
1
Trump only won in Wisconsin against Hillary Clinton by 22,000 votes in 2016.
Gerrymandering. In 2011, Ex Governor Walker and the Republicans drew new lines. New technology to pin point maps.
US Supreme Court Case Gill v Whitford. Three federal judges established that Wisconsin has on e of the most legislative manners in our country.
The gerrymandering guarantees Republican control of both houses of the Wisconsin legislature for a decade, no matter what happens in Wisconsin elections.
In Fact, April 26,2019, Federal court ruled that Assembly Speaker Vos must testify in the Wisconsin gerrymandering case. Vos has been resisting the effort to testify under oath about the way legislatures drew up the maps in 2011. The maps help the GOP win elections.
The judges concluded Vos has to give a deposition and turn over documents. Gee, sound familiar?
Fact. Everyone knows the Russians interfered with our elections. Wisconsin was one of the targeted States.
Unemployment, low numbers? Great economy? For the 1%.
Read the history starting with President Reagan in 1980. The 99% of the US population has less wealth. Vast majority of the 99% live pay check to paycheck.
With the new 25% Trump tariffs, on top of the 10% tariff, brings us real close to the conditions of the Smoot-Hawley Tariff Act of 1930 that helped cause the Great Depression and get us into World War II.
Trumps economy is not sustainable. The red flags are flying.
5
Pay no attention to the man beside the curtain...
3
Sure, a 3% unemployment rate means almost everyone's employed, but a minimum wage stuck at $7.25 an hour also means that millions of working people still can't afford basic necessities.
Raise the minimum wage to $15 an hour and guarantee comprehensive and affordable healthcare for every citizen, like the Democrats are proposing, and you'll see prosperity spread deep and wide throughout the country.
9
@Liberty In I suggest that you try to live on $15.00 per hour, longer work hours, bare bones heath insurance with high deductibles, no sick time, no vacation time or limited days at best. Small businesses use pass throughs to lower their income tax in this new "wonderful" tax law that provides more income for you while your employees make a couple of dollars more in their pay checks. Your employees make so little money their quality of life is limited by steep prices today for food, housing, education, childcare and etc. Why would they share their reality with you: they could lose their jobs.
7
If a strong economy means reelection for Trump, what hasn’t it affected his favorability ratings in the polls
And speaking of polls, citation of one poll, Gallup or any other, is terrible journalism. Look at 538’s poll averaging model tracking Trump’s approval rating. It has been nearly constant in the 40 to 43 percent range for over a year, although there have been outliers 6 or 8 points in both directions. Using a single poll that supports the gist of your argument is simple minded cherry picking and insults the intelligence of your readership.
That Gallup poll, by the way, was conducted 17th-30th. Since then 538 shows 28 newer polls, of those, 4 were outside the 40-43% range. The overwhelming message is that Trump has been consistently unpopular since a month or two after his inauguration.
My guess is that Republican strategists will have little expectation that his numbers will improve, and they will work primarily to drag likely Democratic candidates down to his level.
5
@Gordon The approval ceiling probably represents the same miscalculation before 2016. Some people who prefer the policies still hesitate to tell even an anonymous pollster. The theology of political decorum encourages people to just be quiet about their support because they don't want to deal with the aggravation of a scolding by their allegedly more erudite "betters". Question design also skews results. As an example, medicare for all support plummets when people are told most strategies involve giving up employer based coverage that many are quite happy with.
2
Trump's core voters don't give a hoot about anything other than their blind faith in Trump.
That won't change regardless of economic conditions, foreign policy successes or failures, environmental policies, immigration or otherwise.
The Dems don't stand a chance.
1
@Mark
Mr. Trump has yet to approach a 50% approval rating, and did disapproval rating has been above 50% since he took office.
Mr. Trump's party won the electoral college in 2016 due to the fluke of winning a total of about 70,000 votes spread across PA, MI, and WI. Mr. Trump's party lost every major statewide election in those three states. He is unpopular in every other swing state.
The Dems (and the rest of the quiet majority including independents and disgruntled former Republicans) do indeed stand a chance in 2020.
8
@Mark
"Trump's core voters don't give a hoot about anything other than their blind faith in Trump."
I agree.
But they will understand one thing, loud and clear: utter defeat at the polls in 2020.
Volunteer. Donate.
And VOTE!
8
@Mark
Trump's core group pf voters don't represent anything near the MAJORITY of the American electorate.
Not then.
Not now.
9
This proves his ridiculous complaints about Canada's dairy TRQ system were unmerited, since Wisconsin is doing just fine under old NAFTA (the new one with teeny dairy increases has not yet been ratified).
3
The economies elsewhere are doing just as well sans Mr. Trump.
4
There was full employment in 1939 Germany. How did that turn out for the German people?
11
Remember how Republicans never credited Obama for the huge economic boom which happened under his watch after he inherited a near Depression from Republican Bush. The Republican and media hypocrisy that wants to credit Trump who inherited the current economic situation when they claimed under Obama that a President is not responsible for the economy is true hypocrisy.
18
@DSD - there wasn’t any “huge economic boom” to give Obama credit for. More like super slow but steady growth.
1
millions of immigrants increase the GDP.
4
I will not give up my democracy for all the money in the world. Wages are up but the Constitution counts for nothing? No thanks. A president who believes he is above the rule of law is no president at all. The trains can run on time from here to forever, but without the free press we are lost. I hope the good people of Wisconsin can agree with me on all of that.
22
It's unfortunate voters are not a bit more sophisticated about the relationship between policy and local and national economic conditions.
One of the first things people seem to be unaware of is the lag-time between some policy changes and their effects. Some policies are quicker to have an effect and others take years. Often a president spends the first two to 4 years or more suffering or enjoying, as the case may be, the results of the previous president's policy. It has seemed that Republicans enjoy the fruits of democrats (relative) economic discipline. They then wreck those policies and damage the economy which the next democrat has to fix. There are huge other factors of course. But this one is not insignificant.
Another is short term vs. long term effects. This dichotomy has been roundly abused by Republicans in the last 50 years alternately citing the deficit as a reason not to agree to Democratic social and infrastructure spending, but then actively and radically raising the deficit with tax cuts oriented in the least useful stimulative way possible. (for the wealthy, who have no pent up needs to spend). Small-ish deficits can be dealt with reasonably easily in many circumstances and may never need to be dealt with. Too large a deficit in the wrong circumstances could be catastrophic. Trump's policies are putting us there. With some mild stimulation from the Massive tax cut for the wealthy, people think Trump has made things better.
9
In the opinion polls Biden is running well ahead of expectations
and appears to the overwhelming favorite among Democrats.
A great way to elect Trump is for Democrats candidates with only 1% following
to continue to Trash Biden and do Trump's job for him.
8
I’m thinking about an article I read the other day about the United Nations report on mass extinctions taking place, and the impact it’s having on the future of humanity. I see very different priorities between this article and that one. Trump has deregulated toxic industries, is selling public land and resources to polluters, is doing nothing to promote healthcare and education. Many of the jobs in this economy are not good. Yet he stands a good chance to be re-elected. Many Americans are Christians and believe Jesus Christ will return and save the planet, therefore, we don’t need to prepare for the inevitable disaster we are causing. Many of these people are the core Trump supporters. We are a country that’s being led by people counting on supernatural events to happen in order to prevent disaster. There are a large number of these people that believe disasters must happen for Jesus Christ to return and save the world. It’s a sad situation.
13
@Tim Phillips Suggest a look at Flight Radar 24. At any given time, there are BTW 12 and 15 k airliners with active transponders. That's just one example. Future technologies may alter the propulsion, but the genie is out of the bottle, and it won't be going back in.
2
It is certainly possible that the net increase of about 450 jobs for Wisconsin in the auto industry is huge and that the current economy will be Trumps "trump card",
But the purple states including the northwest/northeast that leaned toward Trump may or may not fall into line.
History tells us that the economy is a huge factor, but Trump may have just created enough chaos with the trade war with China to break the trajectory.
If timing goes well, Trump may win despite his outrageous damage to our reputation, but if the slide begins in 2020 it should well be the nail in his presidency's well deserved coffin.
6
It's amazing how cheaply some people can be bought. Trump is dismantling your democratic institutions, doing terrible damage to the nation's reputation, using the office to stuff his own pockets and those of his chums to the brim every way he can, and doing his best to establish oligarchical control over the country with himself as chief mafioso, yet he can still secure votes from Joe Schmo because he thinks he has a few more bucks in his pocket at the end of the month. Sorry, but democracy and decency are worth a lot more to me than $50 more a month in my paycheck.
19
Dems’ top concerns are abortions and “transgender special privileges”? Really? I’m a Democrat and never heard about that. What we want is first, a government for the people, by the people, and a transparent president who doesn’t hide his tax returns. And health care for all, infrastructure and a tax plan that helps everyone, not just the wealthy.
17
As a factual matter, Wisconsin's growth in total private sector employment over Trump's first 27 months in office lags Obama's last 27 months by a considerable margin (Trump = 49,100 jobs vs Obama = 67,700 jobs, see BLS SMS55000000500000001). Moreover, with the notable exception of Minnesota, wage growth hasn't been exactly stellar in Wisconsin and/or the upper mid-west in general.
Then again, you can't rely on evidence-based discourse to win elections .. can you?
11
Trump supporters remind me of that scene from the movie, The Ten Commandments. Nothing will shake their blind faith in this demagogue until some catastrophe strikes them.
https://youtu.be/pt9wNQd7LgY
5
@Phil Hurwitz
You know how America sends monitors to banana republics to make sure the elections are above board and fair? I have strong doubts as to whether Trump can be given credit for the economy at all. For argument's sake if he can be given credit, would it be worth it in exchange for losing democracy? Soon other countries will be sending officials to monitor American elections. Why not? After all republicans are fine with Russia organising the outcome of 2020- they are doing NOTHING about it. In any event Trump deserves no credit and if he did would it be worth losing democracy?
3
I grew up in the blue color southeast corner of Wisconsin in the 1940's to 1960's. After serving 4 years in the US Army, I came back to UW -Madison in the late '60's to get my undergrad degree in engineering. Then I left, to see the world and to never shovel snow again.
I have watched from afar as my old home town of Kenosha lost Simmons Mattress Company, and American Motors, and Peter Pirsch (fire trucks) and American Brass. But they still have Snap-on Tools and Jockey International. They still fish year round, go deer and duck hunting in the fall, and bowl their way through winter. They still love their sports and their beer and their families!
Wisconsin people are good people and great parents - who want the best for their children.
They will vote for their lifestyle come 2020. If they think that Trump can give them a better life than his Democratic challenger, then they will vote for him. That is how it is supposed to work.
5
@Joe Miksis
I lived next to and with Wisconsin people from 2000 to 2014, not from far away, and none of them went deer or duck hunting. Some were professors, others journalists or artists. They will vote for progressive ideals that were stolen from them by the state’s gerrymandered Green Bay and other rural, right wing areas and reestablish Wisconsin as the fair, idealistic and equitable society it was before Scott Walker. Unions, affordable higher-education, healthcare for all. It’s about more than loving sports and their comfort for the Wisconsinites I know.
14
@Joe Miksis How utterly romantic. And the thought process the oligarchs are counting on.
8
Of Course it's going to work, and when the republicans get rid of the amendment only allowing two terms as president, we can have him for 25 years as president.
2
What do you expect from a state where Scott Walker was elected governor for several terms?
12
@Jim
Point taken. In addition to their longtime Congressman, Paul Ryan.
6
If people in Wisconsin are going to dismiss the lying, the criminality, the dismantling of our democracy, the grotesquerie that is Trump because the economy statistically looks good, then Democrats don’t have a fighting chance at winning their hearts and minds. They will have reduced themselves to wage slaves, forever grateful for the crumbs their masters give them.
21
They will. They always have.
2
Wisconsin got Fox(conned). I doubt the voters will forget whatever the economy looks like a year and a half from now.
7
The GOP did their best to impede the economy for eight years. Not sure Corporal Bone Spurs should get credit for an economy that mostly works for his class.
6
As someone who grew up in WI, I feel I’m on strong ground to say that Walker started or at least expedited the erosion of high standards in education and humanity that have suffered further decrements with Trump. Maybe the state can recover but only without GOP liars in office.
17
Didn’t you publish a story a week or so ago about how Trump and Scott Walker had destroyed the Wisconsin dairy industry? Get your act straight.
10
This story misses a big fact. Farmers are hurting in Wisconsin. Especially dairy farmers. That won’t bode well for Trump.
15
I definitely Wouldn’t hold your breath waiting for a trump supporters to see the error of their ways.
While we cry @ the destruction of democratic institutions and American values (and believe me, I cry daily) , farmers see that neither political party has done much to stop massive consolidation in agriculture, a race to the bottom in prices that is killing dairy farms, or a general sense of being looked down on and forgotten.
If Trump is obnoxious, some rural voters figure, well, at least he is throwing a rock at the system on behalf of the “forgotten men and women of this country” he promised to represent.
For people who are living through the farm crisis and the attendant spike in bankruptcies and suicides, Trump’s antics don’t seem like an existential crisis for the country. Losing your income, your family’s land, and your way of life is an existential crisis- they don’t see a better option.
We need to give them a better option.
2
Here's where the NY Times gives in to Conservative media. Obama rescued the economy in an intelligent and successful way after the Republicans last blew things up. He never got any credit for doing so. Instead, Trump, overstimulates the economy and without anything more than two years of data (most of which is attributable to Obama) he made out to be an economic genius by the NY Times. I'm ready to cancel my long standing subscription instead of daily reading a newspaper that continues to support Trump's made-up narratives.
27
The fed’s policy of quantitative easing was a big gift to the banks which had caused the crisis. It was that policy more than anything Obama did that got the economy going again. Unfortunately the average American worker didn’t do so well under Obama though China did.
6
Is the average American worker doing good with Trump?
5
Other than using the word “Intelligent”, exactly what did Obama do for economy in 2019?
Even Obama knows he has nothing to do with economy.
2
A "winning" message to be sure. Put a racist, treasonous, sexual pervert back into office because people that have to work two jobs to survive have brought the unemployment numbers down low. Be real proud America.
30
Big part of WI economy is agriculture. They tend to vote Republican.
Trumps trade war has hurt farmers badly in this state. Foreclosure rates for family farms is at record levels.
If these trends continue into 2020, Trump will have a lot more votes to make up.
12
If political reporters like Mr. Peters keep telling people the economy is strong people will believe it. Without supporting evidence, a high unemployment rate has no direct connection to the economy really being strong. Neither does as rising stock market.
Remember how strong the economy looked to many in the 1920's. And today, a college graduate with a $50,000 loan to pay off and who has to take a minimum wage job and has to live at home is pushing down the unemployment rate and probably raising the stock price of the company she or he is working for.
But now Mr. Trump can honestly say even The New York Times is saying the economy is very strong.
11
Citizens of Wisconsin, please don't believe a word this man (Trump) says.
15
hey, how about the other unemployment number of 7 plus percent that you journalists are not suddenly talking about but you pounded Obama with. This number includes those who are too discouraged to seek work. Perhaps you are too intimidated by the right-wing machine to find the need to present both sides now. Also, you are not talking about the exploding debt and the welfare payment that has been given to farmers to grease the economy.
12
The economy is running on credit, at some point the trillion plus (and growing) deficit courtesy of Trump's welfare initiative for the rich, will have to be paid back. I wonder which country will call in its markers first? Or will he just print more money, invade a country, start a war. Or, cut education, health, food and farm programs to pay the rich? After the election of course (if he gets another 4 years to play president).
5
Never heard a single Democrat complain when Obama doubled the deficit and now they want to do God’s know what with it with ridiculous “free programs.” Free healthcare, tuition, reparations, guaranteed income. People who pay taxes and vote, follow the news, and are personally responsible are not impressed to say the least.
2
The economy was good under Obama. It's better now. Which just proves that decency, morality, good values and respectability in the WH have little to do with good times. That is why the current disgraceful POTUS must be fought, not on the economy but on those terms. Trump's image on the news every day makes that case in spades.
7
And here I was thinking it was still the Obama economy. When people vote they will remember with nostalgia that time when they had no jobs and then pull the lever for Trump.
4
@Edward
Nice try. But if you were "thinking it was still the Obama economy" -- then you'd know that's the only reason why we're no longer in a recession.
3
@Edward and here you are having your thoughts about Obama’s record of job creation proven completely wrong as well as levers being pulled in elections in 2020.
The unemployment rate fell from 9.3% (the Great Recession peak) to 3.6% under Obama and then fell to 2.9% under Trump. Trump taking the credit is like a back-up quarterback coming into a game in the 4th quarter with the team ahead 24 to 0. He adds another field goal and the team wins 27 to 0. Then the back-up quarterback takes all the credit for the victory.
20
George W. Bush put tax cuts and two wars on credit cards, too, and for a while things were definitely roaring along. Trump’s policies are W’s economics on steroids.
We’ve been to this rodeo before, and the ending isn’t pretty. Watch your wallet, people.
20
The Mr. Benson's of America, do you have health insurance? Is it affordable? What happens if someone really gets sick? How much is your medication? Do you have a retirement? What will you do without social security when you retire? Are your children prepared to compete in a highly competitive labor force? Do you think they want to work in a shoe warehouse?
23
It’s lovely that Republicans suddenly don’t care about the national debt.
16
The Democrats here in Wisconsin will not allow Donald Trump to take Wisconsin again. He has been a major disappointment, regardless of what this article says. Scott Walker, Trump’s pal, was a huge disappointment, Trump economy or not, and got the boot. The Wisconsin Republican legislature will be voted out next year, too. Trump’s lies have not gone over well here and the farmers don’t trust him. The abortion lie he told in Green Bay has backfired. Trump should not count on Wisconsin again, and surely the Democratic nominee will appear a lot, having learned from Hillary’s mistake.
On Wisconsin!
19
Best way for democrats to win this state for the WH in 2020:
Nominate a. moderate progressive who is in tune with Wisc. and America.
1-Stress moderate progressive issues that a majority of Americans can agree upon like universal, quality, affordable medical insurance, the spirit of Roe vs Wade not abortion on demand, Don't stress identity obsession, social engineering and far out left wing politics.
2-Address the issues Trump demagogued like trade, blue collar job loss, immigration with common sense progressive policies and show how Trump is failing in these.
3-Last but not least and not always but remind Wisc. how Trump is an ego maniac, demagogue, wanna be dictator, pathological liar, de facto Russian spy, admitted sexual predator, philanderer but stress points one and two first.
12
Would that be Amy Klobuchar?
3
@Julie Higgs-Thank you for your reply. Too early to tell Julie, I don't know much about her. As usual when a national party in America senses an opportunity there are countless candidates just like when Obama retired two yrs. ago.
However, the one that best follows the above advice history has taught us will have the greatest chance of beating Trump.
1
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/04/26/us/politics/trump-trade-war-wisconsin-dairy.html?action=click&module=Well&pgtype=Homepage§ion=Business
Do the reporters at the NY Times read their own newspaper? I would like to hear how they reconcile this article with the one linked to in my comment.
The REAL answer why these people support Trump has nothing to do with the economy or their jobs or the health and safety of their family.
For these people it is all about race, it always has been and up until Trump came along no Republican could satisfy their white nationalist cravings.
These people would NEVER give a Democrat the benefit of the doubt that they are giving a true white nationalist leader.
Proof? Where did those Obama-Trump voters go in 2010?
6
The only way Trump wins in my state is to keep certain people in Milwaukee from actually voting.
8
@Rick
You mean like what they're are doing in the South?
Thanks for the warning, we'll keep our eyes open.
3
The economy is based on consuming the biosphere and innocent animals. Trump has stimulated the economy by removing regulations protecting the environment and human health.
Companies are now free to bulldoze, clearcut, pave, mine, dam, shoot, blow up, frack, pump, pollute, kill native species and otherwise plunder free of interference from pesky regulators.
Legalized lawless plunder creates a temporary increase in jobs.
And we also have a boom in warmonger-industrial jobs.
Billions of tax dollars are handed to corporations to make weaponry for the Empire's military, and for arms sales, creating lots of jobs. Jobs making machinery of death. High-paying jobs in the "defense" sector. Many of our young people join the military because it's a "great job," and besides, it's fun to wage war with small, foreign countries that never attacked the USA.
As the Trump economy revs up, levels of pollution, noise, environmental destruction and other negatives rev up with it and because of it.
Eventually it will all crash, and a burned-out, paved-over, urbanized husk will be all that remains.
14
The voters in this slice of northwest Wisconsin are the rural white working class voters that Democrats think Biden can win over. It's a fool's game. Better to try to win Wisconsin by getting massive turnout from voters in areas near Milwaukee or Madison who are either young, minority, educated, suburban women, or progressive. The Democrats won't be able to run on the economy, unless there is a significant slowdown in the next 18 months, but they will be able to run on reminding those voters that Trump and the GOP are hostile to their interests.
8
Anyone realize that the National Debt Has skyrocketed to $222 TRILLION, $60,000 for every American, under Trump. That does not include the interest payments due.
Also the Trump Tax Cut put a few more dollars in your pay check, but gave thousands more to himself. But what about the elderly or disabled?
And when the economic bubble bursts??
8
@swenk A war. An invasion. Print more money. A national emergency. A Dacha on Cape Idokopas.
4
@swenk
You mean $22 Trillion. But no one cares about the debt any more.
4
Democrats should not try to underplay the economy, but take the share of credit that they deserve. Emphasize the strides made under Obama and rejoice in the fact that they pointed the way to a full economy. Point out that unemployment went from 10% to 4.7%, that under Obama there were 75 straight months of job creation, that the market went from roughly 6,000 to 19,000. Trump took that number to 26,000. So, be glad that the economy was on such strong footing that even Trump couldn't ruin it.
7
Hillary already tried that. Problem is that Obama is not on the ballot. Elections are about the future.
2
@KJ That's not the total campaign. It is a reminder that the main Trump achievement is a hand-me-down.
America is not a business.
America is a nation state.
Donald Trump is not a successful businessman. Trump inherited 295 streams of income from his daddy. That protected Trump from suffering the consequences of his legendary supremely stupid lack of business acumen.
The President of the United is the head of government and state. The President of the United States is not a businessman.
The economy has little or nothing to do with the President of the United States. America is neither a capitalist nor socialist state.
8
No need to read any further then this, to know the MAGA crowd are unrepentant - and absent a bigly epiphany the size of a planet killer asteroid - will remain so long after he's gone.
“It didn’t let me go out and buy a new house,” Mr. Benson said as he leaned on the bar at the Outhouse, a watering hole on Main Street in this village of about 1,100 people. “But that wasn’t what it was for.”
"But that wasn't what it was for." Okay Bubba. 1. Why not? Didn't Trump promise a huge influx a cash for you and yours? (Fact check; Yes!)
2. Guess what Bubba? The 1-5 %, will be using their tax cut breaks (on their unearned income streams) to buy - not a house, although they might upgrade their guest mansions - they will buy enough things that will dwarf even your wildest imaginations of an oversized, McMansion of a house, complete with a monster truck and largest of the large fishing boat and trailer in the driveway!
Why Bubba, why do you and the rest of you always settle for so little? Why? Why is it okay for you to get a couple extra Happy Meals? While the rich, the Donor class, gets mountain sized servings of their personal-chef cooked, organically sourced, plates of gourmet foods?
Bubba, why dont you realize how you never truly get any more, even though its sold as such, that in fact you get last years few, stale scraps?
Why Bubba, why? Why cant you and yours see you're not any better off? And will see nothing that looks like real gains, in any of Trumps quasi-trade deals?
12
As James Carville once said: “It is all about the economy stupid”. It would certainly be ironic if Trump got elected on a Bill Clinton campaign slogan.Do not bet against it. Trump’s obvious character flaws seem less damning in a period of record employment and a soaring stock market.
3
It's true that there many millions of American Bubbas will vote with their wallet, but there are many millions more who will consider more than money when casting their vote.
Trump is an amoral, immoral, unethical scofflaw of the first order.
He's an insult to the Presidency, the environment, the truth, women's rights, democracy, and the rule of law.
His major accomplishments have been blowing up the deficit with 0.1% welfare while attacking universal healthcare, abandoning infrastructure, rigging the courts rightward, dividing the nation, and continuing the economic glide path established by Barack Obama in 2009.
Trump is also the first President who presides only for the voters who voted for him.
He passed a tax law that specifically punished productive blue states that made Republican red states even bigger federal welfare queens that they already were.
If you have a human conscience, it's impossible to cast a vote for the incredibly disgraceful excuse of a human being that resides in the White House.
Democrats need a strong door-to-door ground game in 2020 to register every unregistered citizen in all 50 states and turn them out to vote so we can address the country's real needs: healthcare, infrastructure, campaign finance corruption, voting rights, a strong EPA and CFPB and basic ethics in the White House.
If not, America's courts will be filled with more 'Adam and Eve' Brian Hagedorn-type judges that are now Making Wisconsin Medieval Again.
November 3 2020
17
Hitler had a low unemployment rate too. And Mussolini made the trains run on time. Neither man nor his accomplishment was reason enough to offer support.
Anyone who supports Trump (or any Republican) is a fascist. This administration is deplorable and treasonous.
22
If the economy stays strong history says he’ll be reelected, just as the S & P and other technical factors pointed to the Dems losing in 2016.
4
@Stephen Gianelli
The view from 3,000+ miles away isn't always telling the whole picture. Especially when the economy isn't as rosy for many Americans as Trump would have you believe.
Floods, drought and tornadoes have devastated America's rural heartland, and his increasingly drastic tariffs on China are the death blow to soybean and pork farmers.
A "strong economy" is only strong when all can benefit from it -- and that's not what's happening now .
7
I guess sanity has been left behind in Wisconsin. Does Bubba understand that the tax cut specifically benefits the wealthy, not people like him? Is he aware that we have a huge deficit because of such tax schemes? Or that the trade wars we’re involved in are raising prices on everything?
6
Russian interference, which happened on Obama's watch, is Trump's fault. Booming economy, on Trump's watch, is thanks to Obama.
Lefty logic makes my head hurt.
4
@SCPro: I suspect it’s your own pretzel logic that makes your head hurt.
4
@Anna
Oh, I see. You're so insightful. Wish I could be a deep thinker, too!
2
@SCPro
So how do you explain Economists crediting the economy with a 10-year growth period, if not for the Obama administration?
Sorry. You have no logic.
And even less math.
5
Mulvaney said. “People will vote for somebody they don’t like if they think it’s good for them.”
So, Mulvaney believes that people have no integrity, morals or smarts. Or is he talking about himself?
Is he right? There are many cautionary and horrifying history lessons of societies choosing short-term, immediate gratification over long-term positive gain and progress; societies that chose to be complicit in the corrupt and vile so they could satiate their own desires; societies that were willing to sacrifice others well-being, future, lives, the norms of civilization, freedom, equality, justice for the ephemeral.
5
Oh Oshkosh by gosh-- I can imagine it now:
Trump will be thrilled to quote, tweet and retweet this story by "the fake news" and " the failing New York Times".
3
It's not employment- neither in Wisconsin where I live, nor anywhere in the US. It's jobs with a living wage and a decent working condition. Take the example of much hyped Foxconn factory in WI. Previous GOP administration under Scott Walker allowed Foxconn "to pay up to 93 percent of its workers just $30,000 a year, or slightly less than $15 an hour. For a family of four, that’s a low enough salary to be eligible for federal food assistance, and is anything but a family-supporting job." (https://is.gd/sscTv7 ) Even that did not stop allow Foxconn to get $3 billion from WI tax payers, besides many clean air and clean water rules either relaxed or ignored. by Scott Walker administration.
Even that job number (with below poverty wage) does not seem to be realistic now. Foxconn, just like many, if not most, Chinese tech companies are decided to reduce its work force. "One Foxconn factory in Shanghai has already replaced two-thirds of its human workforce (about 60,000), and plans to become 90 percent automated in the coming years.- https://is.gd/XwtDB3
GOP in general, and Trump policies in particular, are not only dangerous for the country, but more damaging its his core support base, mainly the poor in rust belt and farmers in rural America.
13
Wisconsin voters have already proved their cluelessness three times; twice by buying Scott Walker's snake oil, and their anger once by buying Trump's poison.
In the many square mile of the state that vote red, it's the red meat, not the bigger paychecks. To paraphrase Lyndon Johnson, give a voter someone to look down on and he'll empty his pockets for you.
10
Here is an interactive map of the electoral college:
- https://www.270towin.com/
1. Mr. Trump's party lost all major statewide elections in 2018 in PA, MI, and WI. He cannot count on that electoral college fluke to repeat in 2020.
2. Democrats have a chance to win IA and NC in 2020 (both states that voted for Obama once).
3. Democrats could win AZ in 2020. The state is rapidly turning purple.
4. If Democrats win FL in 2020, it is game over for Mr. Trump.
5. Democrats could pick up the single electoral swing vote in both NE and ME (which are not winner=take-all states),. This could matter if you do the math to get to 270.
6. I don't see a single state that voted blue in 2016 flipping to Mr. Trump in 2020.
Let's get to work!
- Volunteer. Donate.
- And VOTE!
13
I believe this is the third time I have seen the GOP take credit for the economic gains from Democratic Presidencies. The cycle seems so apparent to me, perhaps I am insane or wrong. Nonetheless, the GOP drives the economy into the ground with their economic policies (trickle down, deregulation, wars paid for on credit, etc...), a Democratic President spends 8 years re-building the economy, then loses to a GOP candidate. The GOP candidate then takes credit for the economic gains, most of which have nothing to do with their leadership or policies. Ultimately, the GOP leader's policies drive the economy into the dump again, allowing for a Democrat to win the presidency. Repeat.
9
The Times continues editorializing in the headlines. The 2020 Trump Campaign is deeply grateful for this one.
4
Strange how all of these Wisconsin Trumpites don't have an appreciation for the "Big Picture", i.e. the potential impending disaster from POTUS Trump's jam-it-down-your-throat negotiating style with China, Mexico, and Canada: three largest trading partners. What these people don't appreciate is those "cheap consumer goods" are being made outside of the US. And by imposing tariffs, a 25% tax in effect, is these goods will automatically increase on cost, and delivered price to the end consumer. That prosperity these folks are basking in is about to get undercut in the form of higher consumer pricing, and no where have their wages risen >10%. So, they have just taken a minimum haircut of 15% in their wealth.
Go out and purchase a box of MAGA red hats, made in PRC.
Want to be depressed? Who holds the majority of US national debt. It's China: 28%. That's $1.13T of a total of $4.02T. (https://www.thebalance.com/u-s-debt-to-china-how-much-does-it-own-3306355) When you threaten your largest debt holder, it usually backfires.
Donald Trump is no stranger to debt; in fact, Trump declared bankruptcy 5 times, so rather than being the "smartest businessman", POTUS Trump has been a spendthrift, who now (to be shown through release of his taxes) will cause our nation to be indebted to the Chinese yuan as much as Trump personally is owned by Putin and Russian oligarchs.
Trump has been an unmitigated disaster to the nation on so many fronts. These MAGA suckers will learn that lesson.
6
It is really hard to see how Amy Klobuchar could lose in Wisconsin or Michigan, and that should come close to locking up an Electoral College victory. I hope she does well enough in Iowa to convince more voters of this.
There was a recent Op-Ed in WaPo that suggested N. Haley would be the first female president, in part because America is a center-right country. We are indeed a center-right country, and we have a center-right party. Its primary competition is the Republican party, and it can win the White House by nominating a centrist candidate who can win over hearts and minds in the industrial Midwest.
2
Trump not effect the economy at all. The patter is consistent across the following statistics: unemplyment rate, employment, wage growth, and GNP. Improvement stated in 2010 and just has gotten better. Their is no Trump bump.
6
I am NOT a Trump fan. But the growing perception among middle class and working class voters is that it IS a Trump accomplishment spurred by big tax cuts, deficit spending, tough line on immigration, tough line on government deregulation and pulling out on unfair trade deals.
3
I am NOT a Trump fan. But the growing perception among middle class and working class voters is that it IS a Trump accomplishment spurred by big tax cuts, deficit spending, tough line on immigration, tough line on government deregulation and pulling out on unfair trade deals.
The unemployment rate was 10% after Obama-Biden took over. It was lowered a full point to 9%, then to 8%, then to 7%, then to 6%, then to 5%, and finally to 4 1/2%.
Trump comes in, the unemployment rate continues to drop one more point to 3 1/2%, and so his base thinks of him as a financial genius and will vote to reelect him no matter what else he's done?
I really hope American voters are not that simple.
29
@Don Oberbeck
All those government jobs Obama "created" are a drain on taxpayers, not a boon. Where's all the talk about raising the minimum wage? Oh yeah, wages are up without federal meddling.
We don’t have strong economy, we have economy that needs to be propped up by 1 trillion borrowing. Any country can make lousy economy into booming one by trowing tons of money at it.
Booming economy is supposed to generate wealth, not steal money from future generations. That’s what we had in 2000, booming economy and budget surplus to invest in the future. Unfortunately, it was all wasted by subsequent conservative administration.
6
Remember:
1) the unemployment rate was ~10% when Obama took office,
2) the unemployment rate was ~4% when Obama left office,
3) the DJIA was ~6,600 when Obama started,
4) the DJIA was ~20,000 when Obama left,
5) the US was losing 100,000s of job per month when Obama started,
6) the US had the longest consecutive number of months of job growth during Obama's time.
These are facts.
Fact is, 45 has managed to avoid messing up the US economy, so far.
13
Voters vote emotionally not factually. Whip up voters fears of “outsiders” and keep everything in a crisis mode — and a Trump re-election is not far fetched. He is a master at whipping up fear and manipulating his “base.”
4
Wisconsin still has our second highest share of the workforce in manufacturing jobs. But we’ve been hit hard by globalization. While these were once “good” jobs it’s hard to say that for most of them now. We’re supposed to be such a great country—why do we have to settle for this? Where’s our national industrial policy? Why can’t we automate our manufacturing in a way that’s immune to foreign competitors who pay their oppressed people a buck an hour?
And maybe the best question of all, why were we so foolish as to elect a president who was totally clueless on all these issues? The answer, of course, is that he at least talked a good game (e.g., "Put tariffs on the Chinese! Rebuild the steel mills in Pittsburgh!”), and combined with his thinly-veiled appeals to racism this was enough to build his tribe. Meanwhile the Democrats couldn’t get beyond obsessing with his awfulness, and all this enabled his razor-thin victory, with Wisconsin as his narrowest margin.
And this scenario could repeat in 2020! That's if the Democrats once again fail to address how we can ensure family-sustaining jobs for all our workers, and instead get consumed by foolishness such as how this is now a wonderful opportunity for us to adopt socialism.
Bubba Benson would love to be able to buy that house, and the Democrats can get his vote if they can convince him that we can create jobs that will let him do that. But if they play it as they did in 2016 we’re looking at another four years of Trump.
Trump has not helped Wisconsin, which has seen record numbers of dairy farms go belly up.
Since the Great Recession, we Badgers got to watch Minnesota, under Democratic leadership, spend their way back to prosperity while we got stuck with the tax-cutting austerity of Scott Walker, a puppet of Koch-led plutocrats looking to get rid of unions to better their bottom lines and privatize traditionally strong state programs to save them from paying taxes that they see as wasteful because they're an investment in society in general and so don't help the wealthy directly enough.
Scooter ran on the promise of 250,000 new jobs (didn't come close) during the 2010 Tea Party purge of breaking established government machinery through gridlock and defunding, all in a grotesque effort to prove that government and its public programs don't work.
Charter schools popped up like mushrooms to funnel of school funding from public ed that has -- gasp! -- not performed as well since massive cuts while forcing quality teachers out based on compensation issues and a clear message that they are not valued.
Wisc has economically lagged behind the region under such philosophy. Walker said we were "open for business" but the ensuing social implosion repelled potential businesses.
The GOTrumP national plan under Trump is modeled on Wisconsin: divide and conquer the people by claiming things are a mess, destroy existing systems only to rebuild them to their benefit.
Wisconsin will remain blue-purple.
12
Trump will operate the country like his businesses—billions in losses. And those in my home state of Wisconsin will pay for it.
6
"It's the economy stupid"
3
@Amy It's a buzz word.
This description doesn’t read like a good economy for most workers there. Most continue to just scrape by, as was the case during the Obama “recovery’.
Hillary didn’t lose Wisconsin simply because she personally didn’t go there. She lost because Brooklyn HQ spent little on the ground money there despite pleas from Wisconsin Democrats.
And Hillary pretended the Obama “recovery” a real thing.
Submitted May 11th 1:50 PM Eastern
1
The economy was strong in 2016. How did that work out for Secretary Clinton?
27
@stewarjt
It worked well enough to win her the popular vote --by over 3 MILLION.
Next.
16
@N. Smith And lose the election. Good point.
Shall we just put this to the test? -- If Mr. Trump's proclamation about a strong economy is so great, then let him bring it to New York City and the other states he has so successfully avoided since getting into the White House.
After all, this is supposed to be good news for the entire country, right?
75
@Chriva
Yet New York City is not only where he hails from, but where all the money comes from in this state (as the Southern District Court will prove soon enough).
And Trump knows all too well, sometimes you can't go home again.
13
@Chriva,
That's not true - Clinton won 10 counties upstate in addition to the counties that she won in the NYC metro area.
And since the parts of the state that reliably vote Republican did so in 2016, Trump's winning upstate was nothing unusual.
What _is_ unusual is the fact that a hometown boy lost his own city by a whopping 80%. Of course, we do know him best here and our votes reflected that. He doesn't dare show his face here now.
27
@Chriva
Except that most of the population is in the NY metro area. Eliminate them, and, really, what have you got.
Many people confuse Wall Street the economy. Trump pumped a lot of money in, which create a lot of positive bumps. However, history has a shown these bubbles don't last.
The tariffs are more troubling. Seriously, Trump is going to have the government (read: taxpayers) buy the Ag products farmers are unable to sell and use it for humanitarian programs?
Depleting the Treasury means nothing to this man. His ego has enabled many bankruptcies over time. It looks to me like the U.S. is going to be his latest financial debacle.
Ronald Reagan's credit card economy didn't work, thankfully Poppy Bush saved us from a major recession by clawing back on the tax cuts. Dubya and the country weren't so lucky with his gifts to the investor class (the less than five percent that owns over 80 percent of the market). Obama, without the artificial stimulation of tax cuts was building a more solidly footed economy.
Now, Trump is turning things upside down with his "wars."
The economics for farmers and workers and family budgets in the future isn't looking very bright from where I'm sitting. Someone is going to have to start reversing the income inequality for there to be a correction.
6
I know Trump's attempts to destroy the U.S. economy have not been successful yet, but he's been trying real hard and I'll be really surprised if he doesn't cause serious hardship before the next election.
8
What makes the current "strong economy" is venal, predatory capitalism. There is low unemployment because so many people work two or more jobs. These jobs pay on an hourly basis and offer ridiculously expensive health insurance. Many are harried, worried, and have a distinctly lower quality of life than 30 years ago.
One would hope these analyses would reflect worker realities of today. A strong economy used to mean workers having one job, with reasonably valuable benefits like affordable health insurance, paid sick leave and paid vacation time. Venal capitalism has eliminated these so corporations pay no federal taxes and all profits go to shareholders (institutional investors). That's a strong economy, all right. Strong for everyone except those who work in it.
11
It makes me mad when I hear the pundits brag about the booming economy. I do not get raises anymore, my benefits were cut, my workload increased, and my retirement account lost money last year. What’s so great about that? Oh, and I work in education.
15
Would love to know who manages your retirement fund and lost money last year. Perhaps you need a new advisor.
4
maybe her adviser bet on soybean futures.
2
Two points, are we crediting 10+ years of growth to trump? Secondly, when trump mimicked the reporter he was disqualified from the office of the presidency, in my mind. (let alone his numerous other transgressions.)
Does character not matter at all anymore? Have the republicans lowered the bar that much?
Very depressing.
10
Like breaking out credit cards to accumulate the trappings of luxury and proclaiming how great you are doing ( for now ) I think like many Bubba is being duped. Maybe he should talk to someone in Lordstown about that chevy hat.
4
What is maddening are the thought processes of voters like Mr. Benson. What sort of mental gymnastics does one have to through to go from supporting Bernie and then voting for Trump. It boggles the mind.
5
I'd caution the working stiffs that you may have more money in your paycheck, but it's masking a 4.7% payday Trump took out to pay for it.
If you're a typical family making $60K a year, that's about $2,800 a year Trump is borrowing and giving the bill to your kids and grandkids. That's $55 every week you owe, but aren't paying, and it's compounding.
I have relatives in Wisconsin. Some used to own farms. Some used to work in factories. It used to be a wonderful state when we were growing up, with honest government, decent people and great schools. When we were teens we sweated like pigs stacking 90 pound bales of alfalfa in the barn.
The RWNJ AM radio types, Tea Party, crazy GOP and Koch-funded Scott Walker ruined Wisconsin. Uff da!
13
Turnout, as always will be the key for any Democratic presidential candidate. If Democratic-leaning and Independent voters are excited about the Democratic candidate, he/she will have a good shot at winning back WI, MI, IA and PA. If enthusiasm is lacking, Trump could once again eke out a narrow victory.
Which means it's all up to the Democrats. Can we get behind and stay behind one candidate, or will intra-party fratricide doom the Dems in 2020?
16
@Raindog63, it's up to voters to get informed and vote. Our country is in big trouble and if you don't recognize it, you haven't been paying attention. I would vote for "anyone" over Trump at this point. I don't expect to be "excited" by good policy proposals and honest brokers, but I recognize they are superior than what we have now
1
A strong economy is good development. However, the other aspects of Trump’s administration are not favorable. Threatening our Constitution is not acceptable in any form as well as the breaking of ties with our Allies and organizations such as NATO, agreements that protect our national sanctity, destruction of our national safety net such as Obamacare, Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security are unacceptable. Isolationism is not in our best interests by any way. The attempts to avoid dealing with global warming are shortsighted and dangerous. Refusing to end our wars is harmful to world peace. We will not survive standing alone.
12
West coast and East coast democrats should move to low population states and control their senate and electoral votes . 10 million folks should do it a super pac fund of $100 million could finance the move which could last 1 or 2 years of course Trump and McCONNELL would declare a national emergency to stop it but defeating the Trump ,republican agenda of propping up a dictatorship might be worth it. Amazon /Bezos alone could fund the whole project and the Washington Post can buy CBS and crush the FOX/TRUMP STATE TV network. TRump would need to be restrained as he would really have something to gripe about.
2
@REBCO
Won't work. They only associate with their own kind.
But in fact dairy farmers in Wisconsin (and other states) are hurting 'bigly' due to trump tariffs. NYT had an article last week regarding this.
China cheats as much as they can get away with in stealing intellectual property, cyber and conventional spying, and economic policies. Sad that trump's schemes aren't working. Also, republicans and trump refuse to acknowledge the extent of cyber attacks on US and put the required resources we need to combat this. Cyber warfare against US is a much bigger "crisis" than that at the Mexican border.
4
Basically all the Democrats need to do to win is not run a candidate as unpopular as Hillary Clinton. That will not be hard.
3
@Corbin
You forget that "unpopular candidate" still got more votes than Trump...and without Russian interference.
You're welcome.
2
Like I keep saying... it's amazing what a $1.0 trillion deficit can do. Just wait till Trump has to cut Medicare, Medicare and Social Security. And don't kid yourself, it's coming...
8
Democrats need to point out that this is not really an economy that he created. Just like his initial wealth was inherited he inherited the economy from President Obama who actually did create it. The only credit the current occupant of the oval office deserves is credit for not ruining it yet.
3
Foxconn, Foxconn, Foxconn...
2
Louise must also live in WI. On point
2
@Louise
Better get a closer look at that deal they're trying to renegotiate and if needs be, take a page out of NYC's handbook when it came to Amazon's deal to move here with $2.2 billion in tax incentives, without even so much as a Referendum.
1
Trump supporters’ anger and praise of him are almost entirely fueled by fear of brown people and their foreign ways. It’s got little to do with a shifting economy - But the economy is the excuse given for supporting a cad like him.
Stay on message since a bad recession is inevitable.
2
Trumps whole career has been predicated on separating fools from their money. Whether it was buying into his “ exclusive“properties or pulling the handles on the slot machines, he treats fools like are something special and then picks their pockets.
Should we really expect that as president he would think of people in any other way? I know what he thinks of these crowds as he walks off the stage.
7
Wow, another Jeremy Peters pro-Trump puff piece, how new. Let's compare the number of quotes from Republican and conservative sources to zero, the number of citations from the center or left. Let's do a deep analysis with love notes from a truly random selection of pro-Trump Real Americans who we won't be told are wives and husbands of Republican party members or lobbyists as with previous Peters' articles. Keep up the Times tradition of courageous journalism in the style of the 24/7 "smoke and shadows" coverage of Hillary Clinton or the "there's nothing to the Trump-Russian connection" or the "Trump is becoming presidential" or all the other "administration sources say.." articles for which the "Liberal NY Times" has become justly famous.
1
Explain the employment numbers to me.......Does the single person working 3 jobs to subsist equal 1 person working or
does that one person get counted three times as employed?
Does one of these 3 jobs offer a living wage?
No matter how you add it up, It's the 1% who are looking at
the bounty that this country has to offer......and only them.
Now explain how that robust economy way up there is bustling along for the 'part time' guy without medical insurance......et al
the one-time only "tip" left on the table via the tax cuts which is already suspended for those at the bottom and is permanent for those at the top......and which btw, is not nearly enough to make any changes for that family or the next generation of that family juggling 3 jobs into eternity.
The economy that those red hats are cheering for is not THEIR economy.............It's an economy that only makes the rich richer......"Trickle-down economics" defies gravity.......It floats
in one direction: UP.....and it never lands in the pocket of the guy with 3 jobs.
So what the heck are all you trump supporters cheering for?
Less money to spend........the bubble economy pops......
4
OK, fine, but what does the state polling data show? Trump vs Biden, Trump vs Sanders, etc.? Yeah, it's early but every published story about the voters of Wisconsin, Michigan, Pennsylvania, Florida and Ohio needs to carry this information. Our lives are in their hands.
comment submitted 5/11 at 2:50 PM
1
In the 1930's Germans loved the booming economy and economic growth created by the Third Reich and most threw their support behind its leader. Didn't turnout so well.
People who vote only for good economic times and ignore flashing red lights about everything else, like Trump's encouragement of tribalism, overt racism, demonization of people in the other party, and - oh yeah - felonies, may live to regret their choice. If Trump wins again, in a few years I bet most people will deny having ever voted for him.
7
I guess this writer hasn’t been reading about all the Wisconsin dairy and other farmers who are facing financial ruin due to Trump’s knuckle-headed tariffs.
5
There is more to America than the economy. I pray that people vote for decency and for democracy and against this dictator.
4
I heard on Andrea Mitchell's show yesterday that 200 Wisconsin dairy farms have closed and 1,200 additional Wisconsin dairy farms are no longer producing milk, thanks to Trump's policies. Are these farmers really going to vote for more Trump travesties?
9
Obviously Crooked Don's tariffs are not hitting Wisconsin. Yet.
1
Doing better by hurting others is not a great strategy, it will cause continual battle.
People are going to need a way to find “win-win” solutions.
Trump is not a real leader.
He is just a megalomaniacal bully.
4
What has demoralized me, even more than trump's election, is that so many of his supporters see success only in terms of their finances. The continued degradation of our country by an amoral narcissist, the rolling back of regulations designed to protect us and the environment, the appointment of judges and cabinet members who are as unethical and unpatriotic as trump are as concerning as trump's current position as Putin's puppet.
173
@D I have been voting for more than 50 years; in all that time, there has never been an individual like trump in the WH. But the level of worship his followers exhibit is even worse than trump himself.
62
@Gardengirl
I totally agree with you. The saddest irony is that the is a precursor to the next step. That pesky deficit and the need to destroy all social programs. And in the very near future disaster relief funds will dry up. The consequences of ignoring climate change for 40 years.
18
@Gardengirl Most voters don't have the knowledge about economics and government to see past their own paycheck
2
Oh, come on. The unemployment rate in Wisconsin fell from its Great Recession peak of 9.3% to 3.6% under Obama. It would have been tough for Trump to reverse that momentum. Yes, it has fallen further, to 2.9% under Trump, but that's only 11% of the decline. Democrats are the ones who should be bragging about economic performance. After all, the economy has performed MUCH better under Democratic administrations.
5
Except that due to Trump’s tariffs on Mexico, Mexico has responded by levying tariffs of up to 25 percent on U.S. dairy products. Many Wisconsin farmers have decided to sell their farms. Guess which way they will vote.
28
"...as he tries to replicate his narrow path to victory in the Electoral College in 2016...."
Having too much time on my hands, I did a little "back of the napkin" gerrymandering to highlight how narrow Trump's 2016 path to victory was, and to offer a modest proposal.
Trump won Florida by 120,000 votes (1.3%). It has always bothered me that Florida's panhandle, which has the look of a gerrymander, blocks much of Alabama's access to the Gulf of Mexico, access that Florida doesn't really need. Furthermore, according to Wikipedia, between 1811 and 1901, Alabama floated 10 proposals to be ceded those 10 panhandle counties. If this very rational proposal had been adopted, not only would Alabamians be happier, Clinton would have won Florida and its 29 electoral votes.
Now on to Michigan. Let's consider the land border of Michigan's Upper Peninsula. The percent of that border shared with the rest of Michigan: 0. The percent of the border shared with Wisconsin: 100. To add to the absurdity, the UP's attachment to Michigan had nothing to do with Wisconsin, but was the result of resolving a border dispute with Ohio and Indiana. If this injustice had been rectified, the UP would be where it belongs , and Clinton would have won Michigan and its 16 electoral votes.
As an aside (not that it matters), the Electoral College would have gone to Clinton (277-261) along with the Presidency. Making these common sense adjustments by 2020? Now who would argue with legislation like that?
4
We are a darn sight better off from the huge chasm left by Bush ten years ago. The recovery has been underway ever since at a consistent unrelenting determined pace adding some 20 million jobs (16.5 million under Obama), and is now unquestionably the world’s strongest economy. Yet trump asserts he inherited "a mess" and incredibly claims ownership for the whole recovery, including the low unemployment rate, in just his first year. In truth he's not only been blithely riding the success coattails of his predecessor, he’s doing things that puts the whole world economy at risk:
> precipitating the largest increase in US deficit in history hampering funding needed for infrastructure and healthcare.
> eliminating most financial regulatory safe guards against conditions that caused the catastrophic Bush recession
> launching an ill-advised unprecedented world-wide trade war with the US’s largest creditor.
It’s a fool’s folly that recklessly puts everything that’s going well in peril which has been trump’s MO for years.
23
When coal is back, cars are made in Lordstown, and Amazon pays its share of taxes, then I’ll give Trump some credit for making things better. For now he’s just selling snake oil.
19
@Peter Tobias You can keep the coal and, anyway, I'd be delighted just to see Trump pay his share of taxes.
1
@Jose Pieste: those economic indicators aren't making allowances for Trump's trillion dollars of added debt. And just think how much better they'd be if the nation's most affluent (including you-know-who) would pay their taxes instead of necessitating that the rest of us pay more than our share.
1
I hate to break it to the NYT readership but many voters in this country vote based on who they want to see on TV nightly for the next four years. In 2016 many voters decided they'd rather see Trump on TV every day than Hillary, whom these voters despised for many reasons. So, Democrats need to nominate somebody who will appeal to these "TV voters". Do this and Democrats win the White House. Don't do it and four more years for Trump.
9
@Ryan I hate to admit it, but I tend to agree with your analysis. In '16, voters basically had a choice between watching "Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous," or C-Span for the next four years. It should not have come as a surprise they chose the former.
Biden, therefore, is probably doomed. Beto, on the other hand, could be a good choice.
@Ryan The unpleasant truth is that today's white non-college educated working class person is not your grandfather's white non-college educated working class person.
Eighty years ago, there were many very intelligent people who did not attend college because of financial circumstances or because of discrimination against their race, religion or gender. Henry George, arguably the most brilliant American economist of the 19th century, left school at age 14. President Harry Truman was not a college graduate.
Today, with many exceptions, someone under the age of forty who was never interested in college probably is not very smart. That could reduce their wages. That also makes them vulnerable to the lies that got Trump elected. Even some with college educations are not able to understand that NAFTA and trade agreements in general increase employment and standards of living and that immigrants are not responsible for slow economic growth. However, lack of access to education, trade agreements and immigration are not the reasons why smarter people can generally earn more than others..."
https://seekingalpha.com/article/4134453
3
We are in a late-cycle economic environment. The unemployment rate is 3.6% and the Treasury yield curve has flattened and is on the verge of inverting. Those two indicators are consistent precursors of a recession. This would be true regardless of who is in the White House.
10
Do not forget that in 2008 the Republicans blew-up the economy through tax-cuts, deficit spending and failure to regulate the financial industry. The coming Great Trump Depression will be far worse.
9
This article ignores the plight of agriculture in Wisconsin. Family farms are going under and being devoured by big Ag. Next, the Walmart shoppers will see most of its' Chinese made products costing more - wiping out any gains they think they won. Walker did a lot of damage to the state with WEDC - acting like a corporate welfare program. There are no decent conditions for working that were not first established by the unions in our history. We removed Walker and are working to remove more of our GOP.
28
Did you notice how boastful Trump is when things are doing as they are supposed to; and how quiet he is (however difficult for a big mouth demagogue to stay silent) otherwise. Has he forgotten that, under his reign, we are living with the highest index of inequality in this capitalistic system, prosperous for the 'rich and powerful' corporate world...but not for the majority, and certainly not for the poor, the one's he promised would be saved by him? Is Trump forgetting that the economy shall wilt if his populist mantra of 'fear, hate and division' remains the law of the land?
3
The low employment rate is about Demographics not economics.
The labor participation rate is dropping by the month and is well below the peak set in the early part of the century.
This is because baby boomers are retiring at a greater rate than ever and essentially it means more people are being supported on Social programs than are gainfully employed.
Welcome to the new Japan.
This is demonstrated in our deficit which is nearing a trillion Dollars a year.
The advantage Japan has is that its Health Care costs are relatively low. Ours are very high and that is illustrated by the fact the fastest growing job segment is Health Care
It has also paid for its student education while we have a further 3 Trillion in debt.
So what, the Trumpers will say while thinking people will be concerned that our ever increasing debt will inhibit our ability to renew our crumbling infrastructure , improve our uncompetitive education system , continue to support an ageing population , deal with climate change.
Meanwhile income disparity will grow impacting consumer spending which accounts for 70 percent of our GDP .
The fact is our so called booming economy is if one takes the long view illusionary, we are simply not building the intrinsic value of our country
If Republicans keep power they will cut back on Medicare , Social Security , they will do nothing about our chronic problems
11
I think the better question is when did the average worker cease to make a livable wage.
4
People in rural Wisconsin, like most of rural America, are clinging to a way of life that keeps getting harder to sustain. They are not the stenotypes many envision. They are intelligent, honest, hardworking and caring. Like Bubba Benson, they're not asking for much. They have proven they will vote for a conservative or a liberal; it all depends on who they believe shares their values.
4
Everyone wants a good job. Everyone wants money. Trump is not a job creator. He is a liar and taking credit for the economy is just another lie. Inflation is astonishing. Food prices at the grocery stores are higher each week despite sales. Shoppers are punching in numbers on the calculators on their cell phones as they walk the isles. I speak with women in the local market as we shop. They are retired on fixed incomes, pensions and social security. They are on Medicare and if they are lucky they are healthy. Many of them are still working because they want to or they have to. Their kids can’t afford to buy a house. Many talk about student loans and debt. Some sold property to help grandchild go to college.
No one thinks the economy is booming down on Main Street. Even friends on Park Avenue with Wall Street jobs and houses in the Hamptons are complaining and we live in what is arguably still the greatest country on earth. The struggle is real and Trump is a Liar. He is trying to win a ratings war and get re- elected. He is not running a political campaign
5
The Trump show similar to the old circus that used to come to rural towns and scam everyone for the night and disappear by the morning is getting old. Unfortunately, still effective in Wisconsin. The only way the Trump voters will come to a realization of the mistake they made is when the economy turns bad and a leader is needed to guide us through the tough times. Imagine Trump leading us through a recession......yeah me neither! His circus will be long gone.
13
"...Republicans’ relentless attacks on their rivals as radicals who hold extreme positions on health care, abortion and the environment."
Classic, just classic, Republican gaslighting and projection. It's what they've done for decades. My god, what a morally depraved ideology.
Last time I checked, it's Republicans who want to deny people's health care, want deny a woman's right to choose, and deny the reality of climate change and science.
There is no denying that Republicans are the true radicals, and that the Democratic Party represents the mainstream views of most Americans on heath care, abortion, climate change...and honest economic policy. Democrats need to throw this back into the ugly face of the Republican Party at every turn.
19
Democrats MUST work to understand the needs and fears and angers of these Trump supporters. It takes a heap of anger or pain to ignore or minimize Trump's lies and contempt in behavior, in word and dead, to his wives, the nation and the world.
7
@C - It would help if the Democratic nominee doesn't refer to about half the voters as deplorables. It might also help if the nominee doesn't make a big deal over riding the New York Subway. Wow, how brave and courageous of a leader to ride public transportation like the rest of us!
It might also help if the person creating the Green New Deal doesn't make videos of putting together Ikea furniture that was made on one continent, shipped to another, and is made to fall apart soon so one has to buy again. The materials used are not exactly great for the earth. Meanwhile, the local Goodwill stores have lots of great furniture that would have backed up a Green New Deal...and helped the poor.
1
@ C... It's actually pretty simple. A lot of people voted for Trump because Hillary repulsed them. If the Democrats nominate a candidate that repulses these same voters in 2020 they will once again vote for Trump just to stick it to the Democrats, even if they otherwise disapprove of Trump.
4
@C
Their fear is that nonwhite people will be treated as equals ... forces them to realize they are not automatically superior to anyone....there's nothing to be done about it except to wait for the race war.
What about the BIG Chinese business which did not and probably NEVER will open. HOW MUCH did WI taxpayers front for that Lemon?
53
Do moral and ethics not count anymore? Civility and decency? Are we so driven by greed and bias that we will condone bigotry, racism, and hate the likes of which I can not remember? Trump is a man who lies and spreads untruths; who befriends the very dictator who conclusively interfered with our most precious of democratic rights; who very likely obstructed and continues to obstruct justice; who takes health care away from the very people who need it the most, including his own supporters; who refuses to give aid to those Central Americans desperate to flee violence. The list goes on. The very folks who are relentless to save the unborn, who look down upon people of color living here in the US and elsewhere are reflecting the mores, or lack thereof, of their president. They are no better than he. And we who see the writing on the wall must walk the walk to make sure Mr. Trump is history come 2020. Talk is cheap. If we can not do that, then we deserve what we do not want. And, Democratic candidates, the onus is on you to help the people of the mid-west, north, south, east, and west. Let us know loudly and clearly that we count.
54
@Kathy Lollock
Unfortunately, Democratic centrists are always more interested in compromising with Republicans and their bad policies than explaining to the American People why Democrats are better and how to create better policy.
If the centrist Democrats weren't always helping the minority party win, we wouldn't have Trump.
1
@McGloin
Sorry. But in this age of extremism on both the left and right sides with each unwilling to compromise, it's up to centrists and moderates to help find a way through this madness.
Ever heard of the Middle Path?
There's no way to Enlightenment without it.
2
The reason that Wisconsin and other states have very low unemployment rates, below the national average, is because their labor force is not growing.
While many states have seen double digit labor force growth, Wisconsin has seen less than 1% growth over the last 10 years. And that is why Foxconn has been struggling to ramp up the factory complex they received a record breaking $4 billion in subsidies to create. They can't find the workers.
With an aging population and some of the highest taxes in the country, this is a big problem for social services, pensions, etc.
Trump's strategy has not been a big success, especially the steel tariffs that hurt manufacturers and retaliation that hurt farmers.
24
Bubba's Song/
when jobs go to Mexico
this country goes to blazes/
a man can't even afford a
can of Copenhagen anymore/
my wife she needed a
beautician's license/
but couldn't come up with
fees for the course/
that sucked/
but Trump gets in
and we both got full time
jobs/
you think I won't vote for him
again/
my kids wear Pampers now
not Luvs/
American dream here we come
Yes, the deficit is what comes to mind.
1
The problem for any presidential candidate is that it isn't just about a job. It's about the things that come with the job like fringe benefits, a livable wage, security, retirement, and good working conditions. These matter and discounting these other things in the face of low unemployment numbers is like leaving your home in a dress but forgetting to put on your underwear. A stiff wind is all it takes to expose everything. The fact that 40% of US citizens do not have $400.00 in the bank for an emergency says more about our economy than any employment number.
31
A good job with good pay is the foundation of the American Dream, such as it is. You can't begrudge anyone for voting their pocketbook. But I hope Americans will factor in other things when they cast their ballots next year. Trumpism will ultimately destroy vastly more than it purports to create, here and abroad. Vote for the national interest as well.
33
@Mark Hugh Miller
Good jobs are continuously replaced by bad jobs, but that is not reflected in the unemployment rate.
2
@Mark Hugh Miller
this time the National interest should come first
in the minds of voters or the democracy we all claim to hold
dear is in the cross hairs of a would be American Putin.
@McGloin - excellent point, thank you.
The fact is—and you will find no stronger opponent of Trump than me—he’s in good political shape now.
He will create his own volatility and then a crisis to outrage, distract and rescue him. It depends where he is in the cycle.
A second term would be a loosed disaster however. Pure autocracy.
8
@Joseph Bloe
Trump is in a ratings war. He knows if he orchestrated the best TV show and is better television than the Democrats he will win again. Trump does not care about the country. He said of the many candidates in the Democratic Party who are reaching out to voters to get a message across “pick one already and let’s get this thing started”. Sounds just like a guy who is casting an attention grabbing sit com or should I say a farce?
"So they are bolstering their efforts in Wisconsin and elsewhere with more narrowly tailored operations to turn out specific groups, like conservatives who find Mr. Trump’s agenda appealing but do not regularly vote."
What a marvelously polite euphemism for race-baiting. Mr. Jeremy W. Peters should be congratulated, except that his job is to report the news, not flack for Trump.
18
It's a sad thing when voters have such a narrow view of their lives and the economy. So today you have a job but what happens tomorrow when Trump and the Republicans cut or take away you or your children's health care, pollute your air and water, cut your medicare and social security and start another useless war. There is so much damage being done by this administration that no one even talks about. And by the way while wages are going up on lower income workers most of that is due to the raise in minimum wages mostly championed by Democrats.
42
@Sue Abrams - Seattle has $15 an hour minimum wage but it was a Democratic Socialist who made it happen.
5
Imagine how much better yet life in our state would be if our Republican-controlled legislature weren't trying to hurt our Democratic governor at every turn. That by itself is a valid reason not to vote Republican in 2020.
121
Trump has a strong economy now however his tariffs on China will continue to cause jobs losses, cause Americans to pay more for everything from China. He doesn't understand that it is a tax on Americans who will spend less as prices go up and it will hurt the economy. Jobs will be lost as businesses cut back on expenses.
9
Trump's phone call to Putin as a precursor to a drop in the polls. It seems the relentless anti Russian propaganda has had an effect. The more important and real issue is that people have been shown the Trump bag of tricks from 2016. Bannon's turn up the hate tactics and the xenophobia. It works well with 2nd amendment people and white supremists. But a growing economy that is tangible. But as has been reported in the NYTs and CNBC this economic growth is threatened by across the board indebtedness. Low interest rates encourage indebtedness. Wall Street was going into upon rebellion against increases in interest rates by the fed. That seems to belie the logic of economic theory to pay down debts in a growing economy.
4
Note that this entire article is in the hypothetical: With these economic indicators, Trump could be running on the economy in Wisconsin. But if one reads carefully, that's not actually what Trump and his allies are doing or planning to do. Their judgement is that a "strong economy," at best, leaves voters "more open to President Trump." It's a decent setup, not a closer. "So they are bolstering their efforts in Wisconsin and elsewhere with more narrowly tailored operations to turn out specific groups, like conservatives who find Mr. Trump’s agenda appealing but do not regularly vote." That's as fine a euphemism for race-baiting as I've ever read.
37
@RRI
What is this famous "trump agenda"?....One person
rule....I suspect...Pay attention America, this is an old
playbook......1933 Germany
When the corporate tax cuts have bought back all the stock they can buy back; when the massive amounts borrowed to close the government's funding gap (created by tax cuts) has been spent; when it dawns that the wealthy have sent their money to the Caymans, not invested it in new jobs; and when it dawns that paying for the cuts and the borrowing is dragging us all down into a pit of interest payments that our grandchildren will still be making -- then let's see how robust Mr. Trump's economy is.
275
@Jim Bob Don’t forget the drop in farm income - it has become worse under Trump
26
@Jim Bob - By that time. Sheldon Adelson, the Koch Brothers, Murdoch, Soros, Hillary, Biden, Sanders, and Trump will have all died from old age.
7
I’m still waiting!!!
1
Taxes are cut, paychecks are bigger, wage growth at 3.2% ... what's not to like?
7
@BD
For starters, there's treason, corruption, lying, broken alliances, destruction of the environment, raising prices higher than the proportionate tax cuts or wage growth . . . I won't mention racism, because that's not not necessarily Trump people consider "not to like."
45
@BD, The citizens in California, New York, and New Jersey are paying higher taxes because of Trump's new tax law. Please tell the readers whose wages grew at 3.2%. I'm sure the CEO's pay grew at a higher rate.
7
@BD You asked, "... what's not to like?" Well, please read Jim Bob's preceding comment.
2
I wonder what the Wisconsin diary farmers think as their lucrative Canadian and Mexican markets have been decimated.
I am sure they are asking why don’t you remove the steel and aluminum tariffs now you have your USMCA.
But no Trump is for keeping them.
Let that be a lesson to anyone who negotiates with us, we will never honor any agreement.
21
@Kevin Niall. NAFTA 2.0 has not been passed. We are still running on NAFTA. Who said that the new deal has been ratified?
6
The Kansas Of the upper Midwest.
Sad.
61
Only informed voters who are willing to show up at the polls can save Wisconsin or Kansas. Or, for that part, the nation.
31
@Phyliss Dalmatian There's hope. They elected a solidly good person as Governor.
15
How ironic that the NYT would publish this... during the week when the "president's" unwise blustering just added 25% to the costs of many good Americans rely on, during which he threatened to soon more than double the number of products on which Americans will pay his tariff tax, and at at time when these tariffs are destroying markets for American farmers and companies.
That isn't going to play well. Even in Wisconsin.
100
@Dan Mitchell
The NY Times is not "liberal." It's neoliberal. Yr NY Times calls Paul Ryan smart and policies that every European country uses to make outs citizens more secure than Americans "pie in the sky."
If the NY Times was actually liberal it would attack Biden and promote Biden.
Global Corporate Mass Media had not been liberal since the 1960s and even that was relative to Senator McCarthy.and Strom Thurmond.
Corporate media tells whatever story they think helps corporations because they are all corporations.
3
Trump took a very good economy where jobs were being created every month and boosted it with national debt and reduced regulation on environmental issues that keep us healthy and safe. Sure, it feels good in the short term, but it's like using your credit card to buy a fancy vacation. In the long-term it will hurt a lot.
When the economy is cooking, such as when Clinton was in office, it's time to reduce our national debt. Instead it has grown to, as Trump would like to say, "a new record!" Someone will have to pay that as it costs us more and more of our budget. If you can't reduce the debt when the economy is good, you will never be able to.
Reducing environmental regulation for clean water and air will hurt our health and increase climate change. Even if you ignore the existential threat of climate change and the moral implications, the economics are really going to hurt. Once again, it feels good now, but the long term will be very costly. Kind of like eating that delicious cake every day and later getting diabetes and heart problems.
105
@Steve The thing is, an awful lot of older voters, people in their 60's and 70's, aren't all that concerned about the future because they're not going to be around to suffer the consequences anyway. What far too many of them care about is their own standard of living here and now. The grandkids will just have to make the best of it in the coming decades.
8
@Raindog63
I've heard that from my father in law more than once. Trump himself has said it too, although not referencing his own death. It's treason to speak of the king's death.
One thing the Democrats could run on is this booming economy is Barack Obamas economy. He fixed it after Trumps party drove it into the ground in 2008. Push the point that Trump is riding Obamas coattails and claiming credit for something he has nothing to do with and that he and the GOP are doing everything they can to wreck it again. Forget impeachment. That's playing into Trump's "chaos is good" outlook. Push Trumps economic disastrous ideas. It will drive him crazy accusing him of stealing from a black man.
34
@markd
BINGO! You just identified the real elephant in the room.
4
@markd
Nope, don’t call it “booming economy” because it is not. No really strong economy needs 1 trillion to prop it up. This is fake economy that is propped up by borrowing from the future generations.
1
Oh, please. Wisconsin has been saddled with the Foxconn scam, a massive corporate welfare package handed, not to an American company, but to a Chinese corporation with a well deserved reputation for failing to follow through on its promises.
That deal, intended to help Walker keep his job as governor, is in trouble. It promptly began to fall apart after Walker lost. Now we've got a huge, complicated mess to clean up.
Who's to blame for this? Trump, Paul Ryan, Scott Walker, and the WI GOP. Trump's also badly hurt our dairy farmers, grain farmers and Harley Davidson with his trade wars and tariffs follies.
Trump's economic policies have been terrible for Wisconsin.
Yes, Trump still has loyal supporters here who will turn out for his rallies. But the rest of us understand that Wisconsin's been used and abused.
279
@L. L. Nelson Thank you!
13
@L. L. Nelson - Yes, the Foxconn scam was about buying off Trump and buying some time. Now Foxconn claims it's suddenly become unfeasible to make large screen TVs in the U.S. Except what changed? TV manufacturing ended in the U.S. when Zenith closed their last plant here in 1995. Now, I would think a highly automated plant might be interesting and might work, but Foxconn isn't really interested in doing anything real, so it seems.
And yes, our Wisconsin dairy farmers have been especially hurt by President Trump's impulsive trade “policies.” The trade war with China and others has caused a drop-off in the already over-saturated international dairy market. And the hardest hit by this loss of sales have been the already-challenged family farms, some of which have gone out of business so that President Trump can send his feel-good tweets.
But as this story reports, people continue to buy his stuff. Look at the lead-in picture to the story, with the crowd of happy red hat youngsters eager to snap a photo of their fuhrer.
What we need is an aggressive Democratic candidate who can speak the truth, who can speak to the ills of the average people and provide an inspiring vision of how we can REALLLY become "great again." And that would involve lots of capitalism (not "socialism"), technology, infrastructure, and education, and of course investment and leadership.
19
@L. L. Nelson- Yes, you are 100% correct.
The "Bubba Bensons" of Wisconsin are vastly outnumbered by urban populations, and when the urban population votes, WI goes blue. The trick is motivating them.
We even saw some cracks forming in the strongly conservative suburban counties around Milwaukee this past election- and the Foxconn deal is part of the reason. I just don't think there are enough Bubba Bensons left for Trump to carry the state. Much of the rural population here is being hurt badly by Trumps trade wars. Many, many dairy operations closing because of it.
Strong economy? Depends on the metric. Should we be satisfied when Mr. Benson has a job, works overtime and can somewhat pay his bills, but not buy a house. Is that as good as it gets?
That's not what I call prosperity.
7
The economy is strong under Trump for the same reason as under Reagan and Bush... he’s stimulated the economy by pumping hundreds of billions, trillions, of dollars into the economy through federal deficit spending.
And when the Democrats run a deficit, they howl bloody murder.
105
@Bob C
Exactly, booming economy is supposed to generate wealth, not steal from the future generation.
If the economy needs 1 trillion from borrowing to look good, our laissez faire capitalism is failing big time.
2
Average yearly earnings for men in Dunn County $30,000. For women, $21,000. Wait til the tariffs take hold and the farmers lose what's left of their collective minds...
162
I think the present "extremist" situation is a curious disconnect in North American politics between the elected and the electorate. The Democrats seem to need a Presidential candidate closer to Denmark's Mette; the Republicans, a personable candidate like Obama but with the acceptable parts of Trump's policies. We have exactly the equivalent puzzle here in Canada. Why is it so difficult to find the candidates with non-extreme policies? Has the need to encapsulate policy in trivial soundbites caused the political extremism we have now? Most of the people I've talked to in both countries express extreme views in a single initial sentence but then retreat into moderation as the discussion progresses. Is the solution a complete ban on political discourse in the media for a month before any election, to move the electorate's thinking from knee-jerk reaction to more measured consideration ?
9
Too bad the MSM hasn't done their job showing the bad economy under the unemployment numbers. Some 90 million have dropped out of the work force, uncounted in the unemployment rate. Jobs are minimum wage or slightly higher. The economy is rigged for increasing unequality. The disparities between rich, poor, middle class and those merely getting by have never been bigger and more potentially dangerous. Trump's tax cuts benefited the very rich much more than the working class. It's an economy deliberately built for maximum corporate profits, maximum conflicts among the different classes, and maximum compliance.
18
What the choice for 2020 comes down to is not necessarily the economy but whether the voters will want to put up with the chaos that has engulfed our lives for another 4 years.
15
The National Archives will- one day have an entire section devoted to "People with eyes transfixed on a rectangle-in-hand".
The accompanying photo is one for the ages.
4
There is a problem in the assumption that the economy is important in elections. “It’s the economy, stupid” was a piercing insight when it was said. The election was up for grabs and the electorate was unaccountably calm. In my memory, the question was, why can’t our yelling get traction? It was because underneath the public discourse was a good economy. People weren’t upset because they were content with their own actual prospects. The economy was underlying the public mood.
But as soon as it was understood that a good economy underlies a calm populace, and a bad economy supports a restless bunch, the proposition itself was undermined. Assertions that my economy is better than yours became a main political argument.
If politics had led to better economies, that would have been fine. But instead, we argue that people will vote for us if we promise to improve the economy. I will cut your taxes, he will take away your health care. Information about how the economy is doing is used as a weapon.
2
Leave it to 'friendly' Wisconsin to help itself to the spoils of seedy corruption while feeling great about punishing the rest of the country. Shouldn't they join up with the South?
6
In-other-words, this isn't about the nation as a whole, this is about a tiny sliver of geography on an electoral map- and it shows:
Week-after-week a similar article appears in the NYT- all centered around the small real estate of America's Electoral System. In between, and other side , there are thousands of communities whose stories are never told.
I sure which the Times (and some others) would venture out mentally and literally to:
"See the U.S.A. in your Chevrolet" (as the old commerical sang).
Come to my home. See what is happening here; how we feel, what we think- what jobs and prospects are ( or not) here. The current story as told- is getting quite stale.
4
@Candlewick - I was just reading yesterday about Senator Warren stopping off at a very small town in W. Virginia to discuss the opioid crisis. It is a predominantly conservative town of 400 people but the residents were quite happy that anyone came to talk to them about anything.
1
djt's most compelling argument in WI is that his baseball hats are the same shade of red as the university of WI badgers.
1
It is appalling to have to wish against a sound economy because you know that Trump will likely be judged on that more than all of the terrible things he's done and said as president that he's actually responsible for.
Nothing else matters, if the economy is good, voters are reluctant to make a change of course, which is probably incentive for China's leader to bear the pain of tariffs for a couple more years, even though it hurts China more than the U.S. Undoubtedly the man is well aware that concessions will boost Trump's political fortunes.
Authoritarian leaders cannot afford to show weakness and Trump negotiates by bullying his opposition, allowing no room for any face saving compromises.
However, Trump may be very hard to beat if his negotiations somehow pan out and 18 months from now the economy has continued to improve. He will have a huge arsenal of talking points, claiming all his moves, including constraining immigration, have been a boon for the economy.
How does one choose what to hope for? The man is truly a super villain.
7
@alan haigh
The economy is not good if it needs 1 trillion to borrow this fiscal year to look like good economy. It is a failing economy and is bound to crash, sooner or later. How much money Trump will need to dump into his economy in 2020 to make it look good?
1
@CarolinaJoe "How much money Trump will need to dump into his economy in 2020 to make it look good?"
All I know is that it won't be his money.
You are right, of course, but most Americans love strip mining until the mine wears out. We are the most short sited culture on earth.
2
if the dairy dispute w/ canada isn't resolved before election day - djt has no chance in WI.
10
I don't think Mr. Benson's politics are inconsistent at all and this is where I think the tendency of journalists to misunderstand the voting of the Midwest and others living in the so-called "flyover country". It is perfectly consistent with the most important thing in his life: his ability to provide a good and sustainable living. Scott Walker represented a threat to the Union life, and Bernie represented a boost to it as well, but if you cannot have pro-Union Democrats on your side, might as well go with the guy who is promising to build up the economy and not just tax "the rich".
They used to build Harley Davidson motorcycles In Wisconsin. Not so much now.
68
The Fed's measures of (un) employment and inflation are the real fake news. The Fed has stopped measuring the real economy in the 90s, instead retreating in financial fantasies and inflating bubbles.
1
So, people can look the other way and forgive myriad serious ethical and mental health issues in exchange for a paycheck that has "a few extra dollars" in it? So much for morality.
82
@Jeffrey Gillespie
"Morality" has never factored much in the life of Donald Trump.
3
@N. Smith I meant his supporters.
who are you to judge these people?
The only economy that will matter is Nov 2020
3
@Prudence Spencer
If people believe that our current “booming” economy, that is supported by 1 trillion of borrowing in 2019 fiscal year alone, is real economy, then we are in real trouble.
Real booming economy is supposed to generate wealth, not steal from the future generations.
1
The costs are there, just hiding in plain site, in the very short term. That's how reganomics works. Environmental damage will be severe and the plants, animals and fresh water don't have a way of 'speaking ' to the blind media, but that doesn't mean they won't be degraded and that the consequences won't be severe, and we will wake up soon enough and say what happened???
2
Everyone who announced the results from the last report sounded quite surprised, using increases in goods warehoused for future sale.
But was that done because of anticipated tariffs and increased costs to import and sell?
I would like an analysis, too, on how many states raised minimum wages and that effect on the figures.
3
The only thing that has changed in the economy is the rhetoric coming from the Republicans. Obama brought the unemployment rate from 10% to 4.5% and Trump called that carnage while FOX news said the "real" unemployment numbers were in the 40's. Trump brings the unemployment rate down one percentage point and it's "Morning in America" again and FOX , suddenly takes government statistics at face value. I doubt if Bubba would have credited Clinton with his job at the plastics factory anymore than he credited Obama for his job at the shoe factory. Since the election is a year and a half away and the economy can turn on a dime (a quarter in Trump's imagination) I don't see where this analysis has any bearing on the future, except in the minds of those who already know who they will be voting for. Whatever line FOX is feeding them that's the line they'll circle, even if they're on the unemployment line.
81
The focus on the unemployment rate and the so called "good economy" is an outdated metric (as David Leonhardt has written extensively about here). I have a job - that pays me about what I would have made 10-15 years ago. Except - the rents here in LA and housing prices are practically double now, childcare is a rent/mortgage payment each month and college is nearly double in cost. So - the idea that because I am "employed" I'm #winning is absurd. I live in fear my kid will fall off a bike and need to go to the ER for a $5000 cast on the wrist or that I'll need serious dental work - all financially devastating events for most American families. And retirement - I have to hope I don't get forced out due to being one of those unpleasant old people - because I sure don't have any money saved to retire or to pay kid's college. So - for all these Trump people - how exactly are we winning? How are we better? I know you like the rhetoric - but I'll like when I can go to sleep at night knowing my kids can go to college or trade school for minimal cost and graduate debt free.
253
What you say is true...going back 4 decades...through multiple administrations and congresses controlled by both political parties.
That said, a couple of things should be said. (1) Even within a specific socioeconomic class, the “misery” is not evenly distributed across US geographic regions. The late 70s, early 80s was actually a good time to be a coal miner or a GM assembly line worker in Flint Michigan. It was not a good time to be a steelworker in New York City.
(2) Right now I think the best thing the Democrats could offer average Americans is
decent single payer health coverage. That said, IMO it shouldn’t be framed in “momsplainish” missives about protecting the “less fortunate” or focusing on the uninsured bottom 50 percenters but rather as something that (along with helping the less fortunate) is actually a significant freedom and mobility enhancer for those who want to leave dead-end jobs, take a 12 month sabbatical, try out the gig economy, watch their kids turn 26, let their “freak flag fly” without health insurance worries.
There used to be the term “wage slaves”. Unfortunately our “beloved” employer based private health insurance system has turned many of us “lucky ones” into “health care insurance slaves”...especially we older people who have gradually become much more aware of impending future health issues.
Single payer should be framed as a common sense “superhighway” to responsible “freedom” and “mobility”...America’s twin founding elixirs.
27
Exactly right, @Woodson Dart, on every count. Would that the DNC listens to you!
7
@Dana...the media isn't doing its main duty--to inform voters on issues affecting their lives----to concretely explain the contrast of our better past policies, and why they changed.
Explain --in past generations people got college degrees low cost or free, and apprenticeship training with unions.
Explain how their jobs were more secure and long lasting---before our congress allowed millions of our jobs to be sent to other countries. Employees actually had periodic raises and guaranteed retirement pensions.
Even for uninsured people, the cost of medical care wasn't huge like now, as a big profit center.
This better past existed for many people still living. They should be interviewed.
Our news media ignores this contrast as if it didn't exist. If it were properly publicized, then the public could use it as a role model used to pressure our politicians.
And ask, if we could do it then, why not now?
7
Wisconsin might think the economy is going okay but the rest of the crop growing nation probably isn't going to agree with that.
We need a stable economy and if there is one thing for sure, Trump is not stable.
117
@BTO Nor is he a genius. Therefore, he's not a stable genius!
4
Trump has done nothing good for the economy. For the last six years of Obama’s presidency, when the Republicans controlled Congress, they refused to cooperate with him at all. On the budget, this created the “sequester.” As a consequence, restricted government spending was a serious drag on the economy for those six years. After Trump was elected, they opened up the floodgates–not only by lowering taxes, but by also increasing spending. This huge combination fiscal boost fully explains the “booming” economy (also the booming deficit).
202
@bmz Also, multiple states and cities across America voted to raise their minimum wage. This is contributing to the rise in wages and has nothing to do with Mr. Trump's policies.
1