In June 2016, President Obama, in a town hall in Elkhart, Indiana, asserted that American manufacturing was merely a thing of the past.

When asked by an audience member why blue-collar jobs continue to disappear, the 44^th President admitted that good-paying jobs in America were moving overseas under his watch.  Mr. Obama asserted that “some of those jobs of the past are just not going to come back.”

“When somebody says . . . that he’s going to bring all these jobs back, well, how exactly are you going to do that?  What are you going to do?,” Mr. Obama asked.

“There’s no answer to it.  . . . What magic wand do you have?”

Just shy of three years later, how things have changed for working moms and dads across the country.

Here’s the news: The White House Council of Economic Advisers released the 2019 Economic Report of the President this week.

According to the report, “the U.S. economy is responding auspiciously” to the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act “along multiple margins.”

Blue-collar America thriving once again: Underscoring the gains the U.S. economy continues to see following implementation of the GOP Tax Cuts, the CEA reports that manufacturing is surging in America.

• Expansion: The manufacturing Purchasing Managers Index, a gauge for overall economic health of the manufacturing sector, was 53 in February.  This is in addition to real GDP growing over 3 percent year-over-year in 2018 – the fastest pace since 2005.
• Faster Growth: Growth in manufacturing employment has accelerated at a rate six times faster than under the Obama administration.  Manufacturers have enjoyed the largest increase in annual job gains in over two decades.  215,000 blue-collar jobs were added in 2018 – 301,000 above pre-2016 election expansion period trends, according to the CEA.
• Growing Paychecks: In February, average hourly earnings rose at a rate of 3.4 percent – the biggest increase since spring of 2009.  According to a report by Goldman Sachs, “wage growth has picked up sharply” especially for low-wage workers.

Simply put: Turns out a magic wand wasn’t needed to change the trajectory of America’s economy.

As Rep. Kevin Brady (R-TX), the top Republican on the House Ways and Means Committee said: “Thanks to a new, modern tax code and balanced regulation, we’ve launched a new era of American prosperity – where workers have first claim over their earnings, small business and manufacturing is back, and American companies can compete and win anywhere in the world, especially here at home.” 

Kevin Hassett, Chairman of the CEA, affirmed that tax reform will continue to move American manufacturers forward.

As reported by POLITICO, Chairman Hassett said “we actually cut taxes to encourage people to build new factories, and we got the new factories last year.  We’re going to get more new factories this year, but we’re also going to get the output from the factories we built last year as they turn them on.”