EDITORIAL: Positive signs on U.S. economic growth

While Democrats react with glee to Robert Mueller’s ham sandwich indictments, the Trump administration continues to preside over an economy that looks to be getting stronger and stronger.

Critics have ridiculed the president and his advisers for their goal of achieving large leaps in domestic growth rates. Americans have been told that the tepid 2 percent or less expansion that characterized the Obama years was the “new normal.”

But while two quarters does not a trend make, news last Friday that the U.S. economy had posted its best six-month stretch in three years is certainly encouraging. The Commerce Department reported that the gross domestic product grew at an annual rate of 3 percent during the third quarter after hitting 3.1 percent in the spring, Donald Trump’s first full quarter in office.

“The good times are here,” one small-business owner told The Wall Street Journal. He said the booming stock market is stoking consumer confidence and leading to more business investment. “Their stocks have gone up, and they’re taking some of that money and saying, ‘Now’s the opportunity to start our own business.’”

Some of this optimism no doubt stems from Mr. Trump’s successful attack on the regulatory state — he has taken a machete to dozens of “major” Obama-era rules and bureaucratic roadblocks — and the promise of tax reform. And that alone should be an impetus for the GOP Congress to further encourage robust growth by approving comprehensive tax relief for individuals, corporations and entrepreneurs.