By abruptly instituting an agenda of deregulation, tax cuts and an end to Obama’s 'You didn’t build that!' demonization of American enterprise, we’re enjoying unprecedented levels of prosperity. Tweet Try to reconcile this contradiction. On the one hand, Barack Obama and his apologists claim that he deserves credit for halting an economic recession that actually bottomed out in the fall of 2008 before he was elected, and officially terminated less than five months into his tenure – long before any of his policies had taken effect, or in some cases had even been proposed. Yet on the other hand, we’re told that in the third full year of the Trump presidency, Obama somehow deserves credit for the current economy, which has in many ways become the healthiest we’ve ever experienced? And while we’re at it, ponder this dilemma: If Obama were such a splendid economic maestro, why were economic assessments so dour back in 2016 as his presidency finally came to an end? Bear in mind that those dour assessments weren’t just coming from conservatives and libertarians, either. For example, The New York Times ran the following headline on June 22, 2016: “Hillary Clinton’s Message: Yes, the Economy Is Messed Up. But I Can Fix It.” Ouch. In a campaign speech that day, Clinton struck a chord more resembling Franklin Roosevelt in 1933 than Ronald Reagan in 1984: So do not grow weary. Do not grow weary. There are great ideas out there. And we are going to be partners in a big, bold effort to increase economic growth and distribute it more fairly, to build that economy that works for everyone, not just those at the top. Not exactly the “It’s Morning in America” theme that propelled Ronald Reagan’s reelection landslide. Her opponent Donald Trump, Clinton further lectured, “just continues to spout reckless ideas that will run up our debt and cause another economic crash.” On that prediction she left no ambiguity: Here’s the bottom line. Economists left, right and center all agree Donald Trump will drive America back into recession. Just this week, one of Senator John McCain’s former economic advisers said, ‘Trump policies would wipe out – wipe out – 3.5 million jobs. His tax cuts tilted toward the wealth would add more than $30 trillion to our national debt over the next 20 years. That is just astonishing. Well, fortunately for Americans, Clinton’s talent for economic forecasting proved as ramshackle as her campaign machine. Instead of “driving America back into recession,” President Trump’s policies turbocharged an economy running on tired legs after eight years under Obama. By abruptly instituting an agenda of deregulation, tax cuts and an end to Obama’s “You didn’t build that!” demonization of American enterprise, we’re enjoying unprecedented levels of prosperity. Consider that for the first time in recorded U.S. history, the number of available jobs exceeds the number of unemployed Americans. By one million, in fact. Stock markets this week again broke record highs. Unemployment has fallen to levels unseen since the moon landing half a century ago. Economic growth never even reached 3% for a calendar year under Obama, and we were told that was no longer possible by the same “experts” whom Clinton referenced. Under Trump, however, we achieved that allegedly impossible 3% growth milestone in his first full calendar year as president. And here’s the particularly painful kicker for leftist class warriors: The fruits of the Trump economy have disproportionately gone to working-class Americans, not “the rich.” To wit, wages for lower-skill employees are rising at the fastest pace in over a decade. Manufacturing wages have grown by a full percentage point more under Trump than they did during Obama’s second term. The Black unemployment rate has declined twice as much as the White unemployment rate since Trump’s election. In fact, Black and Hispanic unemployment rates have fallen to record lows under Trump. That’s a remarkable reversal from the Obama economy. During her 2016 campaign speech referenced above, Clinton lamented how “the unemployment rate among Black Americans is twice as high as among Whites.” Clinton also lambasted supply-side economic policies preferred by Trump in that speech. But just like Ronald Reagan, Trump has proven them superior to the big-government, tax-raising, high-regulatory model advocated by the left. The objective Obama-Trump performance comparison makes that crystal clear. Nothing guarantees that our current prosperity will continue forever, of course. Economic recoveries invariably come to an end, and the economic agenda advanced by the Nancy Pelosi-led House of Representatives and the innumerable horde of 2020 Democratic presidential candidates could quickly grind our economic ascent to a halt by reimposing Obama era economic policies. It’s therefore critical that the American electorate recognize that threat, and not opt for a return to the Obama malaise.