THE PATRIOT POST ALEXANDER'S COLUMN 12/19/2018

Will Democrats Get the Recession They Want?

For the next two years, job and income prospects for tens of millions of American workers and their families will fall victim to the Demos politically induced recession.

Mark Alexander

"[Members of Congress] are the Servants of the People, sent together to do the People's Business..." —Benjamin Franklin (1785) Three months ago when stock prices were at record highs, The Washington Post's Beltway elitists declared, "A record-breaking market doesn't matter to most Americans." Really? Even though more than half of Americans own stocks and other types of investments, including their homes, that are dependent on a strong economy? Of course, the WaPo was lamenting the fact that most of the value of equities held by Americans is in the hands of 20% of investors. Ironically, a sizable chunk of that is held by Jeff Bezos, the wealthiest individual in the world. Ironic because Bezos, who owns the WaPo, is a charter member of the mega-rich Archenemies of Liberty Club — leftists who use their wealth to fund Democrats and socialists and their free-enterprise wrecking-ball policies. For the record, Bezos has an estimated worth in the $130 BILLION range. Or, to put it another way, Bezos makes more money in 10 seconds than his average Amazon employee makes in a year. Additionally, much of his newspaper's elite Beltway readership lives in five of the nation's richest counties. The Bezos/WaPo hypocrisy notwithstanding, the wealth created in equity ownership is reinvested in companies and creates jobs for all Americans — which is to say, all Americans have an interest in a strong economy reflected in stable equity prices. But that report was from August. Now, according to financial analysts: "Both the Dow Jones Industrial Average and the S&P 500 are on pace for their worst December performance since 1931, when stocks were battered during the Great Depression. The Dow and S&P 500 are down 7.8 percent and 7.6 percent this month, respectively. December is typically a very positive month for markets." The Left's primary print propagandist, The New York Times, assessed this situation: "The market has been buffeted by a range of concerns, from signs that the trade war between China and the United States is beginning to weigh on global growth to worries that higher interest rates will eat into corporate profits. ... When the dust had cleared, the S&P 500 was down 2.1 [percent] for the day and 4.8 percent for the year. Should the market fail to recover, 2018 would be Wall Street's worst year since the financial crisis a decade ago. This year's sell-off is nothing like the collapse of stocks a decade ago, when the S&P 500 fell more than 38 percent. But in its own way, 2018 is emerging as a remarkable year for financial markets, with almost every type of investment and asset class — stocks, bonds, commodities, even safe Treasuries — posting negative or minuscule returns." And the most recent survey of chief financial officers for U.S. companies found that 50% believe that the economy will be in recession by the end of 2019. Almost 80% think a recession will hit by the end of 2020. So, what's going on? After all, when Donald Trump was elected, the economy soared to new heights by virtually every measure. The administration's tax cuts, passed by Republicans in Congress, fueled the economic engine. And regardless of Wall Street, Americans on Main Street were doing well. But now, after second-quarter GDP at 4.2% and the most recent quarter at a very healthy 3.5%, the markets are tumbling — and with them, confidence in the economy. In all the Leftmedia analysis of a potential economic downturn, they're leaving out the proverbial 800-pound gorilla most responsible for the downturn in the equities markets. That gorilla is the surety of political instability, the most significant deterrent to economic stability, under the incoming House Democrat majority. The Trump administration came into the midterm election with an extraordinary record of achievements. Democrats, on the other hand, had nothing to run on but their "Hate Trump" platform, campaigning, in effect, against peace and prosperity. The midterm election was, therefore, a referendum on Demo voter IQ and the Demo/MSM's chokehold on their opinion. Clearly, Democrat voters are not a very intelligent lot. But the Democrat Party outspent Republicans by more than two to one — spending fueled by the aforementioned leftist billionaires and their ActBlue socialist cabal, which gave Democrats more than $1.5 BILLION in 2018. Consequently, Democrats retook the House, promising to take Trump down! Their most likely angle of attack? It probably won't be Special Prosecutor Robert Mueller's dead-end Russian collusion investigation, which we now know was sparked by the fake Russian dossier funded by Hillary Clinton and her DNC hacks, and then promoted by her political sycophant, former FBI Director James Comey and his deep-state operatives. Two years into that charade, even some of the "journalists" who originally advanced the dossier conspiracy are doubting its veracity. Most notable among them, Michael Isikoff, who filed one of the earliest wire reports on the dossier, now says many of its claims "will never be proven and are likely false." In this case, Isikoff does not get class credit for "better late than never." So I conclude House Demos will focus on accusations of campaign-finance violations, which fit neatly into the Democrats' "stolen election" narrative, to fuel their faux corruption and impeachment charges. They may even follow through with threats of impeachment against Justice Brett Kavanaugh in order to further appease their largest constituency, women voters. The House will haggle over such charges for months, until it is politically expedient for a simple majority vote on impeachment. If they get that far, the charges would then pass to the GOP-controlled Senate for a lot more theatrical Demo handwringing before it dies there ahead of the 2020 election. This is the holiday calm before the storm. Caught in the Democrats' political crossfire for the next two years will be tens of millions of American workers and their families whose job and income prospects will fall victim to the Demos' politically induced recession — the direct result of having thrown economic confidence under the bus in order to attack Trump. As Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) notes, "[Democrats] want Trump to lose more than they want the country to win." National Review's Jim Geraghty concurs with a cautionary note: "If the economy goes into recession in 2019, President Trump may well relish having the Democratic-controlled House to blame. It's unlikely that House Democrats will have much ability to influence U.S. economic policy, other than blocking any new initiatives from the Trump administration. But the timing for them would be pretty bad — they step into the new majority and the economy suddenly slows on their watch." But don't underestimate the current crop of socialist Democrats. Like generations of socialists before them, they are willing to trample grassroots Americans — the "Forgotten Man," including many of their own constituents — in their relentless pursuit of power and what they falsely frame as "the greater good." Footnote: Patriots, one of the most cost-effective investments you can make toward the future of Liberty is to support The Patriot Post. We rely entirely on the voluntary financial support of our Patriot readers — people like you — to promote freedom and challenge the one-sided Leftmedia narrative. Please support The Patriot Fund's Year-End Campaign today. Thank you.* Semper Vigilans Fortis Paratus et Fidelis Pro Deo et Libertate — 1776