House Democrats Economic Plan Parrots what President Trumps Already Doing

After spending a year traveling around the country on a listening tour Democrats in the House recently released an Economic Plan that consists of either recycled bromides or pale imitations of what President Trump is already doing. Meanwhile the partys base drifts further into socialist extremism. The Democrats dilemma on the economic policy is obvious. Under President Trump:

• The economy is surging.
• Optimism is at record highs.
• The unemployment rate is at 18-year lows and for blacks and Hispanics its at all-time lows.
• Median household income is at an all-time high.
• Worse still for Democrats voters credit Trump for the economys revival after years of stagnation under President Obama.

So best thing Democrats can say is that things could be better. But the party leaders dont have any ideas to make that happen. Steny Hoyer the House Minority Whip just released an economic plan that offers up ideas in only three areas where Trump has already made strides against fierce Democratic opposition job skills entrepreneurs and infrastructure. Job Training We must make training and education more affordable Hoyer says. His one concrete proposal is to expand Pell grants to include training programs. But Trump is already pushing to close the nations skills gap. Last week he signed an executive order creating the National Council for the American Worker which is tasked with consolidating and reforming the multitude of existing federal job training programs that together spend $17 billion for little results. And nearly two dozen companies and trade organizations signed Trumps Pledge to Americas Workers to train or retrain 3.8 million workers. Apple Boeing GM FedEx Walmart were among those signing the pledge. The reaction from Democrats? Crickets. Trumps also proposed a sweeping reorganization of the federal government which would combine the Education and the Labor Departments into a Department of Education & the Workforce. The specific goal is to direct those agencies efforts toward a common goal expanding the supply of skilled workers. Democratic Sen. Patty Murray (right) attacked Trumps reorg plan calling it his latest attempt to make government work worse for the people it serves. Of course the best job training program around is a job and those are plentiful in todays booming economy. Entrepreneur Tools Hoyers plan to help entrepreneurs amounts to nothing more than a promise to provide better and stronger tools to help entrepreneurs. But entrepreneurs dont need more government programs. They need government to get out of the way. The tax cuts Republicans passed for business and the self-employed without a single Democrat vote are letting startups plow more of their earnings back into their own businesses rather than to finance government tools. Trumps deregulatory push will do more to encourage entrepreneurs than anything Democrats could dream up. Which is no doubt why small business optimism is now at highs not seen since the Reagan boom of the 1980s. Shovel Ready Jobs As to infrastructure Hoyer simply wants the government to spend more money on roads and bridges in the same wasteful and inefficient way its been doing for decades. Hoyer also calls for a mix of public and private investment to expand internet access and quality. Trump has already proposed a bold $1.5 trillion infrastructure plan that would enlist the private sector to finance much of it while cutting needless government red tape that keeps infrastructure projects bottled up for years and raises costs. Democrats like Rep. Peter DeFazio brushed it aside as simply another scam an attempt to sell our nations infrastructure and create windfall profit for Wall Street while rolling back environmental protections. To his credit Hoyers plan doesnt call for repealing the Trump tax cuts or re-regulating the economy. But the real problem Hoyer faces isnt that hes got nothing new to offer Its that his partys base is busy embracing a socialist agenda of free health care free college guaranteed government jobs and open borders. If Democrats want to reclaim the center theyll need to come up with something more than offer up Make It In America pabulum.