December 6, 2014 by David K. Sutton

Economy Grows, But Still Waiting For The Trickle Down

November was another great month for job growth this year, topping out with over 300,000 new jobs created. 2014 is shaping up to be the best year for job creation since the mid-90s boom times.

But after 57 months of consecutive job growth under President Obama, the best streak since records have been kept, along with the economic gains that fueled that job growth, unfortunately average Americans are still waiting for the wealth created in this economy to trickle down to them. Sure, job creation is good, but wages have been stagnant. So, where have all the economic gains gone? You know it, they went to the top 1 percent, or more specifically, the top 0.1 percent. But that’s okay if you are a supply-side prophet, because any day now that wealth is going to start filtering down to the rest of the country. Any day now.

Indeed, there are some people doing extremely well in this economy. The Dow Jones Industrial Average is up over 10,000 points since Obama took office. For Wall Street honchos, their bottom lines are doing quite well thank you. And for those of us who have retirement plans tied up in the stock market, that’s a positive, but many Americans are feeling nothing. They are working low-wage jobs with no pay increases or pay increases that don’t keep up with inflation. They have little if anything saved for retirement. And they see people talking about the economy growing and they wonder when they might start feeling the love.

But isn’t this exactly the kind of economy Republicans want? I’m not saying Republicans intentionally want to screw low-wage workers, but their economic policies would at best create an economy that looks much like the economy we now have. The only difference is that they would further cut taxes and spending, and they would do this under the guise that it will help those low-wage workers. And sure, who doesn’t want a tax cut? But when Walmart workers find out their food stamp money has dried up (because Republicans cut funding, and Walmart doesn’t pay a living wage), will they still think that tax cut was worth it?

“The president can talk about an improving economy, but try telling that to those Americans who are suffering so much in the Obama economy,” said soon-to-be Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R). “What about the poor and middle-class who can’t find jobs or whose wages have barely budged during the Obama administration?”

But what would Mitch McConnell and fellow Republicans do differently? As I said, they would cut taxes and spending. They have had plenty of opportunities to pass bills that would help create jobs and instead this congress has done nothing. This congress has passed the fewest bills of any congress in a lifetime. Republicans talk about leadership, they say Obama needs to show leadership, but they too are in leadership roles, and maybe they need to take a look in the mirror.

Can any Republican tell me what they would do differently other than further tax and spending cuts? And can you explain to me how further cuts will improve the economy without stating it as matter of fact? Because I fail to see how a Republican economy would look any better than President Obama’s economy, and I only have reason to believe that it would result in even greater imbalance between the haves and the have-nots.