It appears as though liberal comedian Bill Maher has heard enough from Congressional Democrats. During his HBO program over the weekend, Maher sneered at Democrats' breathless invocation of the term "constitutional crisis" -- which we also dealt with last week -- challenging the opposition party to either bring their actions into alignment with their dramatic rhetoric, or to stop talking. In short, put up or shut up. His notoriously left-wing audience applauded the sentiment:
"Democrats, either do something or stop talking about it." – @BillMaher #RealTime pic.twitter.com/7h8L9CPpPJ
— Real Time (@RealTimers) May 11, 2019
"I just think you're making yourselves look weak. You're just making yourselves look like people who talk and talk, and don't do anything."
During another exchange on the show, Maher interviewed Rep. Tim Ryan, a Congressman from Ohio who is among the nearly two dozen Democrats running for president. When Ryan tried to downplay the success of the economy under President Trump, Maher wasn't having that, either -- via Mediaite:
Maher asked Ryan how he’s different from the other Democrats saying the same thing. “I know what direction we need to go in,” Ryan said. “I know where the economy’s going.”
“Where?” Maher asked.
“Right now, nowhere,” Ryan said.
Maher jumped in again and said, “The economy’s not horrible. 4.4% is the unemployment rate in Ohio. It’s kind of hard to run against the economy in Ohio, isn’t it?”
“No,” Ryan said, “because the average wage has only gone up 20 bucks a week.”
“Wages did finally rise,” Maher countered.
“After how many years?” Ryan asked.
“But Trump is president for two years, we can’t ignore that fact,” Maher said. “Finally wages went up. He was the guy in the office at the time. He’s gonna run on that.”
Indeed, wages have finally risen meaningfully under this president (a trend that's expected to continue), who enacted pro-growth tax reform and deregulation. Ryan's complaint that wages were stagnant during previous years is an accidental partisan own-goal that only serves as a reminder of the Obama administration's historically feeble recovery. GDP growth exceeded expectations in the first quarter of 2019, then a monster April blew official projections out of the water on job creation. The national 'U3' unemployment rate is an incredible 3.6 percent, with several major demographics hitting all-time bests. Talking down this economy is a virtually impossible at this point, as Ryan learned on Real Time. There's a reason why Trump's job approval on this crucial metric is so strong. Another talking point some Democrats try to employ is to credit Obama with starting the progress that Trump inherited. People aren't buying it. In late 2018, voters were attributing the strong economy to Trump over Obama by a two-to-one margin. That poll was taken seven months ago, and the news has only gotten better since then. Politico notes that Democrats have been laboring to thread the needle on economic messaging:
Republicans have long believed that if only the economy held up, President Donald Trump could win a second term. Following another spate of positive economic news — and without a cohesive economic message of their own — many Democrats are starting to fear he might. Anxiety on the left reached new heights last week, with the government reporting that the nation’s economy had grown at an unexpectedly fast pace in the first quarter of the year. While Trump took credit for the surging economy, Democratic presidential contenders were immersing themselves in the Mueller report and debating whether incarcerated felons should be allowed to vote...“We don’t really have a robust national message right now” on the economy, said Celinda Lake, a leading Democratic strategist and pollster...“You may agree or not with it, but you know what [his message] is. And Democrats, you don’t know what it is. And that’s a recipe for disaster in 2020.”...According to a recent CNN poll, 71 percent of Americans rate the nation’s economic conditions favorably
Circling back to Maher's first point about Democratic words vs. actions, I'll leave you with another scathing review of the party's contempt stunt against the Attorney General:
The unity of conservatives around Bill Barr reminds me of the unity around Kavanaugh and the Covington kids. Barr has been more transparent than the law requires. He made offers of even greater transparency. There are no grounds for contempt: https://t.co/DPCqoKFUPq
— David French (@DavidAFrench) May 9, 2019
Many Democratic politicians and lefty media media figures are still raging at Barr for not bringing obstruction charges against the president, citing a letter from hundreds of former prosecutors asserting that there was sufficient evidence to so. But Robert Mueller couldn't even bring himself to make that recommendation. And if Democrats really believe there's obstruction (and even collusion) "in plain sight," then move forward and impeach the president. Good luck.
