Optimism Among US Manufacturers at Record High Heading into 2019 “American manufacturers think the future looks bright,” Joe Williams reports for the Washington Examiner. “Nearly 89 percent of the 539 companies polled by the National Association of Manufacturers in the fourth quarter held a positive outlook for their business, bringing the yearly average to 92.4 percent, the highest in the survey’s 20-year history.” Click here to read more.

Saturday will mark the one-year anniversary of President Donald J. Trump signing historic tax cuts into law. “Kevin Hassett, chairman of the president’s Council of Economic Advisers, said strong capital spending and economic growth are proof that the good times can be sustained,” Gabriella Muñoz writes in The Washington Times. “We got exactly the growth affect we predicted last year,” Hassett said.

“Thankfully, the era of broken promises ended in 2016,” Dr. Alveda King, niece of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., writes in the Ledger-Enquirer. “For Trump, strengthening American communities is fundamental to American success. The FIRST STEP Act does just that by establishing job-training initiatives to better prepare prisoners to re-enter society after they are release.”

In USA Today, Secretary of Agriculture Sonny Perdue writes that the Trump Administration’s new proposed Supplemental Nutritional Assistance Program (SNAP) rules will encourage productivity instead of poverty. “The president has directed me, as Secretary of Agriculture, to propose regulatory reforms to ensure that those who are able to work do so in exchange for their benefits.”

“During the 2016 campaign, President Trump promised blue-collar and low-wage service sector workers that he would improve their lot. A new labor-market study by a major business group suggests he's kept his word,” the Investor’s Business Daily editorial board writes. “The study by the Conference Board, the New York-based global business organization and think tank, found that blue-collar workers aren't just doing better, they're now in short supply.”