By Mike Apgar,

Dover

U.S. annual economic growth is hovering near a measly 1 percent. However, this is higher than in the rest of the developed world.

In addition, the stock market is at a record high, corporate profits are up, and the richest Americans are doing very well.

Amazingly, the current debate is whether to (a) give large tax cuts to business and the wealthy or (b) increase the taxes on the wealthy and stimulate the economy with infrastructure investments to create good-paying jobs. If this seems like a no-brainer, it is.

Investments in new jobs are low, but giving more money to rich people won’t expand a consumer-based economy. Consumers need more money to spend, thereby creating additional need for products.

A more sensible alternative to providing more money to the wealthiest through tax cuts, would be to simply give that money directly to consumers so they could spend it. Raising the minimum wage and providing allowances for better child care, early education and job retraining would improve the economic lot and capability of those who are struggling.

Simply cutting taxes so that the wealthiest receive the lion’s share of the benefits is ineffective in creating economic growth and reducing the budget deficit.

The massive tax cuts during the Ronald Reagan and George W. Bush administrations resulted in explosions of the national debt. Corrective tax increases under George H.W. Bush, Bill Clinton and Obama administrations have shrunk budget deficits.

Americans are finally wising up to the fact that traditional Republican tax policies favor the rich. The huge growth in wealth disparity and the huge budget deficits are the result. Most Americans are not savvy economists.

We’ve been fooled twice, but the McCain-Romney-Trump economic proposals have been and should be rejected. We’re finally wising up.

Donald Trump has demonstrated that he can read a speech from a teleprompter, albeit not very enthusiastically. However, his economic policies are a cynical attempt to line the pockets of wealthy people, including (of course) his own.

Trump’s foreign-policy speech could be summarized in a nutshell. His good ideas were old (and being implemented by Obama) and his new ideas were bad. His secret plans for defeating ISIS (fast) consisted of little more than “Believe me.”

Sorry, Donald, we don’t.

Trump is looking into the abyss of a walloping defeat. He seems to know it, and so does nearly everybody else.

We’ll miss his nutty claims and pronouncements, but the world will breathe a collective sigh of relief when he takes a much-earned thumping in November.

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