Investor's Business Daily - Here's Why Trump's Carrier Deal Is So Important
President-elect Trump's deal with Carrier isn't important because it saved 1,000 jobs. It's important because of the message it sends to businesses everywhere: Help is on the way.
The reaction to Carrier's decision to retain some of its employees after meeting with Trump has been amusing. On the one hand, Trump's critics say the deal was a mere trifle, since there are still so many people out there hurting. On the other hand, they claim that Trump is acting like a third-world despot.
A few headlines paint the picture:
"Trump's Carrier Victory Is the Economy's Loss"
"Trump's Carrier deal is right out of Putin's playbook"
"Is Trump's Deal With Carrier A Form Of Crony Capitalism?"
"Trump Cheered for Carrier Deal Even as Other Jobs Are Trimmed"
"Bernie Sanders: Donald Trump 'Has Endangered' U.S. Jobs With Carrier Deal"
The White House, meanwhile, sniffed that saving 1,000 jobs was a mere fraction of all the manufacturing jobs supposedly created on Obama's watch. (Earth to White House: Trump isn't even president yet. Plus, there are 300,000 fewer manufacturing jobs today than when Obama took office in January 2009, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.)
To be sure, we are not thrilled with the fact that Indiana agreed to cough up $7 million in special tax breaks for Carrier to keep some of its jobs in the state. It's a misallocation of resources that only encourages companies to hold states for ransom. But this is, unfortunately, a routine practice among state governments these days. And Democrats can hardly complain about it, since their only recipe for growth is to hand out special tax breaks to companies that do their bidding.
Nor are we fans of Trump's threats to impose tariffs on companies for making products abroad — since the only people hurt by such tariffs will be the very working class families Trump is claiming to champion.
But listen to what Carrier said after meeting with Trump. It said its decision was made possible "because the incoming Trump-Pence administration has emphasized to us its commitment to support the business community and create an improved, more competitive U.S. business climate."
If that's the message Trump is delivering to business leaders, we should all be cheering
It means an end to eight years in which President Obama, instead of supporting U.S. companies, arrogantly scolded business leaders and treated businesses as either piggy banks to be raided or as enemies to be brought to heel through regulations and mandates. We've seen the effects of Obama's approach — eight years of dismally slow growth, stagnant wages, and a surging population of labor-force dropouts.
What's more, if Trump succeeds in cutting business taxes, allowing companies to repatriate money parked overseas, and easing the regulatory burden on job creators — as he's promised — he won't have to browbeat companies into keeping jobs here, because they will already be doing that, and creating millions more.
We can hardly wait to see how Trump's critics try to put a negative spin on that.
President-elect Trump's deal with Carrier isn't important because it saved 1,000 jobs. It's important because of the message it sends to businesses everywhere: Help is on the way.
The reaction to Carrier's decision to retain some of its employees after meeting with Trump has been amusing. On the one hand, Trump's critics say the deal was a mere trifle, since there are still so many people out there hurting. On the other hand, they claim that Trump is acting like a third-world despot.
A few headlines paint the picture:
"Trump's Carrier Victory Is the Economy's Loss"
"Trump's Carrier deal is right out of Putin's playbook"
"Is Trump's Deal With Carrier A Form Of Crony Capitalism?"
"Trump Cheered for Carrier Deal Even as Other Jobs Are Trimmed"
"Bernie Sanders: Donald Trump 'Has Endangered' U.S. Jobs With Carrier Deal"
The White House, meanwhile, sniffed that saving 1,000 jobs was a mere fraction of all the manufacturing jobs supposedly created on Obama's watch. (Earth to White House: Trump isn't even president yet. Plus, there are 300,000 fewer manufacturing jobs today than when Obama took office in January 2009, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.)
To be sure, we are not thrilled with the fact that Indiana agreed to cough up $7 million in special tax breaks for Carrier to keep some of its jobs in the state. It's a misallocation of resources that only encourages companies to hold states for ransom. But this is, unfortunately, a routine practice among state governments these days. And Democrats can hardly complain about it, since their only recipe for growth is to hand out special tax breaks to companies that do their bidding.
Nor are we fans of Trump's threats to impose tariffs on companies for making products abroad — since the only people hurt by such tariffs will be the very working class families Trump is claiming to champion.
But listen to what Carrier said after meeting with Trump. It said its decision was made possible "because the incoming Trump-Pence administration has emphasized to us its commitment to support the business community and create an improved, more competitive U.S. business climate."
If that's the message Trump is delivering to business leaders, we should all be cheering
It means an end to eight years in which President Obama, instead of supporting U.S. companies, arrogantly scolded business leaders and treated businesses as either piggy banks to be raided or as enemies to be brought to heel through regulations and mandates. We've seen the effects of Obama's approach — eight years of dismally slow growth, stagnant wages, and a surging population of labor-force dropouts.
What's more, if Trump succeeds in cutting business taxes, allowing companies to repatriate money parked overseas, and easing the regulatory burden on job creators — as he's promised — he won't have to browbeat companies into keeping jobs here, because they will already be doing that, and creating millions more.
We can hardly wait to see how Trump's critics try to put a negative spin on that.
