Reluctance to talk about House Speaker Paul D. Ryan’s signature achievement suggests that it’s a political dud, in part because the economy is not markedly different from what it was when President Trump was elected.
The unemployment rate dropped in April to 3.9 percent based on about 236,000 fewer people looking for a job, with only 164,000 jobs created, much less than the number needed to sustain new workers. Wages rose only 2.6 percent, below expectations. With inflation running at 2 percent, workers are barely keeping up. Jim Tankersley of the New York Times explained on “PBS NewsHour” on Friday:
There’s no economic theory that says, when you cut taxes, people get big bonus checks from their employers. It’s just a thing that happened that sort of snowballed, in part because companies got wise that the president and Republicans would amplify.Oh, look at this great company that is giving out bonuses based on the tax cuts. It was sort of a feedback loop. But that ended after a couple of months. And workers who got that bonus, which, again, is fantastic — and more money in people’s pockets is always good — in this case, they’re not seeing a sustained, well, next year, I’m going to get a bonus. And the wage hikes haven’t really followed.
Quite aside from whether the tax cut will ever produce the results Republicans promised, Republicans running in the midterms have a fundamental problem: What are they running on? Senate incumbents, I suppose, can brag to a certain segment of the base that they confirmed conservative judges. The House hasn’t even done that. Neither can the House show off an immigration fix, an infrastructure plan, or a new and improved health-care plan — nor do Republicans have coherent plans as to how to accomplish any of those things. They seem reduced to arguing that Democrats will impeach Trump — in contrast to the Republicans who have failed to exercise vigorous oversight, smeared the FBI and the Justice Department, and egged Trump on to cancel the Iran deal (with no backup plan).
That may sound farcical, but the lack of tangible accomplishments or a viable agenda going forward is as much of a burden on Republicans as is Trump’s unpopularity. Unfortunately, congressional Republicans seem to have no plans to tackle any other major issue this year. Voters might consider voting for Democrats who pledge to do something on infrastructure and health care and to uphold their constitutional role. I mean, what do voters have to lose?