Wishing for Trump to be Reagan

Merry Christmas to all my readers. I thought I’d use this Christmas Day column to present my favorite Christmas wish — I hope and pray that Donald Trump is the new Ronald Reagan.

Liberals and the mainstream media (I know, I repeat myself) keep suggesting it won’t be easy for Presidentelect Trump to turn around the U.S. economy and save the middle class. Really? I think it’s pretty simple. Just replicate Ronald Reagan.

I’ve been searching for the new Reagan to “Make America Great Again.” I’ve been searching for a president who would reward the economic engine of America — small business — and reward the people who value work ethic, personal responsibility and rugged individualism over cradleto-grave government dependency.

That was precisely how Reagan created the greatest economic expansion in world history — by incentivizing the only people who matter to an economy: the business owners, financial risktakers and job creators.

Americans remember Reagan’s smile, his jokes, his positive attitude. They think that was the key to Reagan’s success. But what made Reagan great was simple: cutting the highest tax rate from 70 percent to 28 percent and also dramatically cutting regulations. What a powerful economic onetwo punch.

It’s no coincidence Reagan and Trump share the same campaign theme: “Make America Great Again.” That simple gameplan reinvigorated entrepreneurs and turned around the economy in the 1980s. Trump’s plan will do exactly the same.

It’s all about the taxes, stupid. Lower taxes reward the work ethic. Lower taxes encourage the business owners and job creators to risk and invest our money, to achieve, produce and contribute.

Reagan’s tax cuts turned the misery, malaise, decline, depression and disaster of the Carter years into the greatest economic expansion in world history. Reagan exploded the economy, creating $30 trillion in goods and services. Net assets such as stocks and real estate went up by $5 trillion — an increase of 50 percent.

Reagan’s low-tax policies created nearly 20 million jobs in a short span, increasing U.S, employment by a remarkable 20 percent. In one year alone, the GDP increased by 6.8 percent — the largest increase in 50 years. In only seven years the economy grew by a staggering one third.

The economic boom lasted 92 consecutive months — the longest peace-time boom in world history. It shattered the previous record of 58 months by almost 60 percent.

Trump’s plan to cut both taxes and regulations is positively Reaganesque. Like Reagan, Trump is relentlessly pro-business, pro-entrepreneurship and pro-capitalism. Trump is on the side of the makers, not the takers. Trump’s plan is great for the people who get up to work each day and pay into the system. Finally — someone is relentless on our side.

Ho ho ho. If Trump replicates Reagan, we will all be enjoying many Merry Christmases to come. They may not be white Christmases here in Vegas. But here’s hoping they are green — as in the color of money!

Merry Christmas to all and to all R-J readers a blessed day.