Here's what booming GDP numbers say about Trump's economy: Andy Puzder

The real news about GDP isn’t how far we have to go, it’s how quickly and how far we’ve come

The Commerce Department announced Thursday morning that the U.S. economy grew at an unprecedented 33.1% annualized pace in the third quarter.

No matter how the Democrats and their media allies attempt to qualify it, that was the biggest GDP surge ever. It beat the previous historic high of 16.7% in the first quarter of 1950, as well as the third-quarter estimate of 32% from economists surveyed by Dow Jones.

President Trump’s economic policies are continuing to make miracles, despite all the fear-mongering, skepticism, and negativity coming from the Democrats and their allies in the liberal media.

Some media sources are already reporting this historic number with the caveat that we still have a long way to go to recover to fully recover. Well, of course, we do.

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But the real news isn’t how far we have to go; it’s how quickly and how far we’ve come notwithstanding the fact that we are still in the pandemic and a number of states are still imposing restrictions on economic activities.

It wasn’t just a spectacular number, it is the best quarter of economic growth on record and a testament to both the vitality of America’s private sector and the policies the Trump administration implemented, first on a bipartisan basis with Congress and then on its own, following state governments across the country shutting down large swaths of their economies.

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As I have said before, there are two main reasons why we were witnessing this economic miracle.

First, the growth-oriented policies of the Trump administration, including middle-class tax cuts and a historic rollback of job-killing regulations, gave the U.S. economy unprecedented momentum heading into the pandemic.

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Second, the president’s emergency economic relief legislation, including the Paycheck Protection Program, unemployment benefits, and direct taxpayer assistance, helped boost consumer spending which accounts for about two-thirds of our economic growth.

For the second time in less than four years, President Trump has successfully lifted the U.S. economy out of stagnation, finding solutions to two very different crises.

Of course, the left will never give President Trump the credit he rightfully deserves for this remarkable economic milestone. Even before the GDP figure was announced on Thursday morning, the liberal media and their platoon of partisan pundits were frantically trying to discredit an economic report that they haven’t even read.

“The US economy probably grew at record speed in the third quarter. But the crisis isn't over,” CNN Business wrote in a two-sentence headline the day before the report.

Around the same time, NPR observed on its website that the “blockbuster” GDP report should not be viewed with too much optimism. “On its surface, economic growth data out this week will look like one for the record books,” the publication wrote. “But dig in, and the picture is not as bright.”

Not to be outdone, NBC News also published its own “analysis” of the ongoing economic resurgence, offering a “reality check” to the claim the country witnessed the fastest GDP growth in history.

And the full list of similar opinion columns disguised as articles that were published ahead of the GDP report goes on.

All of these desperate criticisms boil down to a single weak objection — you shouldn’t celebrate our ongoing economic rebound for as long as America battles the coronavirus. And what that argument really means is that any positive economic development, no matter how sensational and record-setting it may be, must be ignored while President Trump is in the White House.

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Of course, even if there were no new coronavirus cases across America, the biased media would refuse to applaud the President’s policies, and insist that the White House should have handled the outbreak differently.

The biggest question the American people should ask themselves before they vote on November 3 is whether it is in our nation’s best interests to abandon Donald Trump’s proven formula for economic prosperity. Clearly, it is not.

For the second time in less than four years, President Trump has successfully lifted the U.S. economy out of stagnation, finding solutions to two very different crises.

As our historic third-quarter economic growth attests, the proof is in the pudding -- no one is better equipped to steer America toward prosperity in the next four years than Donald Trump.

Andy Puzder was chief executive officer of CKE Restaurants for more than 16 years, following a career as an attorney. He is currently a Senior Fellow at the Pepperdine University School of Public Policy. He was nominated by President Trump to serve as U.S. labor secretary. In 2018, Puzder authored "The Capitalist Comeback: The Trump Boom and the Left's Plot to Stop It" (Center Street).  His latest piece, a Broadside by Encounter Books titled, “It’s Time to Let America Work Again” was released on July 20, 2020.

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