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Back in the mid 1980’s I was doing a joint public seminar on investments (I was the warmup act) with Dr. Bob Goodman, the chief economist at J. & W. Seligman. Seligman was a mid-sized mutual fund manager based in New York City. The seminar was held in an auditorium and was sponsored by E.F. Hutton. (Some of you may be old enough to remember their slogan; When E.F. Hutton talks, people listen”). There were 2-3 hundred people in attendance.

Bob was bullish on both stocks and bonds. His presentation was very powerful and urged people to be, and stay, invested in both. After his prepared comments we went into a Q & A session. The first question came from what proved to be a seriously concerned attendee. He said, Dr. Goodman I have listened to your convincing story, but I am worried. You see, I have sold all of my stocks and bonds and bought gold. I have bought shotguns and lots of shells. I am stockpiling bottled water and have a year’s supply of prepared, shrink wrapped, survivalist food. But if things don’t go wrong soon, I’m going to be ruined. After a couple of seconds of silence, the audience broke into uproarious laughter. Dr. Goodman wished him luck, then suggested the man should sell some of his gold and buy some stocks and bonds just in case things go right.

I tell you this story because it is eerily similar to the position Democrats find themselves in right now. They’ve done everything possible to rid themselves of the “orange man”. They impeached him, invaded his home, called him Hitler, accused him of insurrection, indicted him, and tried to remove him from ballots in a few states. Responsible Americans elected him anyway. Dems. are now, in conjunction with lower courts, locked in a full-throated attempt to keep Trump from following through on his campaign promises. He has continued to push forward with his agenda while brushing away futile Dem. attempts to delay progress like gnats buzzing around his head.

In his first 4 months in office, yep it has only been 4 months, he has reduced the flow of illegal immigrants into our country by over 90%. Biden said the border couldn’t be closed without an act of Congress. He has removed hundreds of thousands of criminal illegal aliens, the worst of the worst, from the neighborhoods of law-abiding citizens. Dems are fighting every step along the way. Girls can finally enjoy their privacy in girl’s locker rooms. They can be safer while competing only against other girls. Dem. Governors and Mayors who refused to follow the law are facing Dept. of Justice lawsuits. Gas prices, grocery prices, even egg prices, are lower today than when he took office. Dems scream he hasn’t done enough. He put “reciprocal” tariffs on countries who had been ripping us off for decades. The key word here is reciprocal. What kind of leader would argue against protecting the jobs of middle class Americans? Sadly, there are some. The Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) has identified hundreds of billions of fraudulent and wasteful taxpayer dollars in multiple government agencies. It has eliminated millions of names, some of them fraudulent, from our Social Security fund. While Democrats pound the podium telling us they are in favor of eliminating waste and fraud in government, they warn that DOGE is being too aggressive. To date, they have done nothing to locate and put an end to the waste of our money. The last American hostage of Hamas was just the latest of over 40 Americans returned home from overseas prisons since Trump took office. The list above is impressive, but it is not everything he has accomplished.

I saved a paragraph for the Trump change that may have the most positive impact for the American people. For decades, we have been paying higher prices for medicines than people in other developed nations. Big Pharma spends far and away the most money lobbying members of Congress to gain favorable legislation. At the end of 2023 there was nearly 2,000 pharmaceutical lobbyists. Almost 60% of whom had been government employees. In 2022, the industry invested nearly $400 million lobbying elected officials. Lobbyists, and their paid for members of Congress, have been telling us that prices had to remain high if Big Pharma is to continue the research and development (R&D) necessary to bring forth new life saving drugs. Everyone wants new life saving drugs. Someone, namely Donald Trump, finally asked the obvious question. Why should the American people be expected to cover 100% of the cost of R&D to produce medicines used by people all over the world? (This is yet another example of our elected representatives allowing U.S. citizens to get stiffed by freeloading foreigners). Trump just signed an Executive Order that will drastically reduce the prices we Americans pay for pharmaceuticals. It gives America “most favored nation status” pertaining to drug prices. What that means is that the U.S. will pay no more for pharmaceuticals than that of the country paying the lowest price. The change should have little to no impact on Big Pharma’s R&D budget. They will simply be gathering revenue from everyone using their products. In other words, everyone. We should expect to see lower prices for prescriptions which should result in lower health insurance prices. This simple, long overdue, change will have a positive effect on every single American. That multiple Presidents and Congress’ have allowed their constituents to be ripped off for so long is unconscionable. Good on ya Mr. President.

Democrats find themselves in a similar position as the questioner at the Chicago seminar I mentioned previously. They are at a crossroad. They can continue to oppose Trump’s wildly popular agenda, hoping things will get worse for our country and thus for Americans. Or they can abandon some of their unpopular positions and do what they were elected to do. That is to go to work and support the policies that got Donald Trump elected last November. They must work in a bipartisan way to advance his agenda and better the lives of the people who elected them. Just in case things go right.

I hope you enjoyed reading my latest thoughts. Perhaps even found them thought provoking. Please feel free to share them with your friends. Especially those who are still not convinced we made the right choice last November. Thank you, Bob