I pointed out yesterday that Donald Trump has increased domestic spending at a faster rate than Barack Obama, Bill Clinton, or Jimmy Carter.
The day before, I castigated him for proposing a budget that expands the burden of government spending by $2 trillion over the next decade.
And two days before that, I explained that he hasn’t really changed the trend line on jobs.
So it’s safe to say I don’t go out of my way to say nice things.
But I’m also very fair. I don’t hesitate to praise politicians whenever they do good things, or to point out evidence that their policies are having a desirable effect.
And here’s a tweet that suggest Trump has made a positive difference.
This is an amazing shift.
Especially since Trump hasn’t actually fixed the problems that lead some successful people to expatriate.
- We still have worldwide taxation.
- We still have a death tax.
- We still have double taxation of saving and investment.
- We still have FATCA.
But he has moved policy in the right direction is some of those areas thanks to the 2017 tax legislation.
His other achievement, which is probably even more important, is that he’s not Hillary Clinton. In other words, we’re not getting the bad tax policies that might have occurred in a Clinton Administration.
So it’s understandable that there’s been a big drop in the number of expatriates. The type of people who might move (the “canaries in the coal mine“) now think things are getting better rather than worse.
By the way, we’re talking about small numbers of people. But they’re often exactly the type of people – entrepreneurs, inventors, and innovators – that help drive growth.
