Mid-term elections: What it might mean for the US economy
Posted By RichC on November 4, 2018
Americans are finally working again and the U.S. is once again the place for businesses to expand, hire, give raises and grow. For all the questionable rhetoric from the far right and left extremes … and yes, from President Trumps’ "tweets" and biased media reporting … 
the actual governing under his administration and a GOP House and Senate majority has been good for America … and all Americans. Sure, we all have our personal peeves with particular issues. The president’s personality and his flaming the fires by highlighting divisive issues may not be attractive to those preferring politically correct normal politicians … the the all to familiar, say one thing and do another … but there is no denying President Trump’s results in "promises made, promises kept."
To be fair, a recovery, be it slow, began in the last couple Obama years, particularly after his administrations’ progressive policies were curtailed by a GOP controlled congress. The recovery has accelerated under GOP leadership and has acted as if the economy was on steroids. The leading forward looking indicator, the stock market, screamed ahead after Trump’s election win in 2016. The economy is so improved that the Federal Reserve has moved from years of easy monetary policies to raising rates and unwinding their balance sheet. Hopefully an "independent Fed" remains wiser than the rest of us and sticks to their purpose to moderate our economy and preventing the next cycle of extremes.
Now for something to worry about. Current polls and our nation’s history of mid-term elections tells us the opposition party (Democrat Party in 2018) is favored to gain seats in congress. That along with our country’s demographics separating political philosophies by population concentrations (city, suburban, rural), age, gender, race and faith has the House race 6 in 7 that Democrats gain leadership control. Since congress controls the purse, and often politically motivated investigations of their opponents, the likelihood is 
that we will face a gridlock. The result is that very little will get done on the pressing issues such as addressing immigration and border control, lower taxes, spending control, Medicare and Social Security shortfalls and health care … all that have been pushed off again and again.
My prediction if this comes true, is that President Trump like previous presidents facing a congress unwilling to proceed with his current policies, will shift his focus to where he can still be effective — foreign policy.
