Donald Trump, who can easily get distracted by picking Twitter fights with Rosie O'Donnell, got back on course Monday and gave a speech on his economic plan before the Detroit Economic Club.
After all that current economics has done to Detroit, he might want to continue his "irony" theme by giving his next speech on protecting the environment at the Flint Water Co. The Detroit Economic Club gave its highest award for economics last year to the member who sold his house in Detroit in 1998.
Ron HartIn short, Trump's speech can be summed up this way: more for America, less for China and Mexico. He says, "We are going to be great again, the wall is going to be great, the best, the best, a beautiful wall and it's going to be fantastic. And did I mention great?" It's the type of detail economists can really sink their teeth into.
He drew contrasts between his economic vision and Hillary's. He wants to make America great. She wants to make America Greece.
Trump's instincts on the economy are mostly right. He wants to reduce regulations and cut taxes that drive companies overseas. Obama is the only president to fail to preside over even one year of 3 percent economic growth. In short, when you concentrate money and power in the inefficient D.C. bureaucracy, wages and businesses cannot grow - thus our slow-growth "recovery."
There is plenty to be cut in government. Just in the fatty folds of the hundreds of agencies in Washington, there is probably 20 percent worth of cost reductions to be made. Remember when the government shut down? Did anyone miss anything it did?
Hillary has the historic chance to ascend to the highest position of power for a person in a dress in Washington since J. Edgar Hoover, but I'm not sure what her plan for the economy is. Maybe we can follow her lead and become a government official married to an ex-president. We can then go on the lecture circuit, visiting companies we regulate and countries the U.S. government gives money to, and shake them down for $500,000 speeches.
Democrats run an envy-based economy. They rail against business owners who are "billionaires and millionaires" who pay taxes and hire workers. They want us to be more like Cuba, North Korea and Venezuela, countries which have no such billionaires who are not in government. In fact, everyone in those countries checks the Democrat utopian economic goal of everyone making the same amount of money: $20 a week. That's "fairness."
In truth, Democrats are terrible with the economy. Instead of soldiers, Obama needs to send his economic advisers to destroy ISIS with pestering regulations and taxes. Democrat policies decimated Detroit; maybe we should try them on our enemies.
He does best for himself when he divides us into various aggrieved classes. The Democrats' plan for America's economy would work great if only they could make resentment, envy and being offended pay better.
Obama and the Democrats' economic plan, which Hillary has to espouse, doubled the nation's debt to $20 trillion in eight years. What Hillary promised in her DNC speech, including free stuff for folks if they will vote for her, will add another $1 trillion to our deficit. Dems talk about their concern for our kids while strapping them with trillions in debt.
Under the Democrat plan, this country has as much chance getting back in the black as Spokane's NAACP ex-leader, Rachel Dolezal.
Hillary says when she is president she will turn the economy over to Bill Clinton. Nothing says you are an iconic feminist leader like turning the checkbook over to your husband the first chance you get.
And the self-sacrificing, "great American" Bill Clinton will fight for us on the economy - as hard as he fought the draft board for himself during Vietnam.
Trump is smart to get back to talking about the economy and moving past the media-hyped gaffes of the last couple of weeks. Clearly, his explanation that he was just being "sarcastically funny" when he suggested Putin turn over Hillary's 30,000 deleted emails fell flat. If we know anything about Russia, it's that their government officials really appreciate humor.
Contact Ron Hart at Ron@RonaldHart.com or @RonaldHart on Twitter.