Things continue to be pretty great -- and getting better -- in America

No matter how often Trump portrays the economy as a toxic-waste dump, it’s in solid shape, so solid that the Federal Reserve has started raising rates to cool it down. “We are coming close to our assigned congressional goal of maximum employment,” Fed Chair Janet Yellen said in December. One reason the Fed is tapping its brakes is that wages are on track to rise another 2.7 percent this year, easily outpacing inflation. It is true that growth has been less than stratospheric, and it will be terrific if Trump can keep his promises to boost it, but America’s GDP is an impressive 11.5 percent higher than it was before the Great Recession, while the eurozone’s just climbed back to its pre-crisis levels this year. Unemployment in Europe is also twice the U.S. rate, a stark reminder that things could be way worse. U.S. auto sales hit a record 17.5 million units last year, while U.S. auto production has doubled since the bailout of 2009. And the federal deficit has shrunk by two-thirds as a percentage of the economy.

There’s a lot of good news about health care, too, notwithstanding all the misleading daily outrages over Obamacare. The uninsured rate has dropped to 8.6 percent, the lowest rate ever, as more than 20 million Americans have gotten covered since 2010. But while the media have focused on recent double-digit premium hikes for selected families who don’t have Medicare or coverage through their employer, overall medical costs are rising at the lowest rate in 50 years. Premiums for employer-sponsored coverage are $3,600 lower than they would be if they had kept growing at the pre-Obamacare rate. Meanwhile, the coverage is better, because it can no longer be terminated because of pre-existing conditions, and it is no longer subject to annual or lifetime caps on reimbursements. There is evidence that care is getting better, too; for example, hospital-acquired infections have dropped 17 percent since 2010, saving an estimated 87,000 lives.

The news about energy is even more exciting. America is in the midst of a clean power revolution, with wind generation tripling since 2008, solar increasing more than 30-fold, and the first half-million electric vehicles on the road. U.S. carbon emissions are now falling even though the economy is growing. One-third of the U.S. coal fleet has been retired, which is terrible for coal country but good for Americans who like breathable air and a habitable planet; it’s the main reason the electricity sector has already met the Clean Power Plan’s 2024 emissions target and is closing in on its final 2030 goal. At the same time, the U.S. has become the world’s leading producer of oil and natural gas, slashing oil imports to their lowest level in 40 years. The combination of low gasoline prices and higher government fuel-efficiency standards is expected to save the average family $750 at the pump this year.