Tag: Trump economy

Trump claims farmers wept behind him when he signed an executive order. Video shows otherwise.

The scene President Trump illustrated while addressing a southwest Iowa crowd this week was like something out of a storybook.

He harked back to Feb. 28, 2017, when he sat in the Oval Office surrounded by, as Trump put it Tuesday, “homebuilders and farmers mostly, and ranchers.” The president was preparing to sign an executive order instructing a review of the Obama-era Waters of the United States rule, which he and other critics opposed for levying excessive federal regulation over farmers’ land.

When he put pen to paper, Trump recalled, the nearly two dozen men and women standing behind him wept with joy. The emotional outpouring was apparently a first for a contingent in the room, as many of them had never cried before.

View the complete June 13 article by Michael Brice-Saddler on The Washington Post website here.

Trump’s Tariffs Could Nullify Tax Cut, Clouding Economic Picture

WASHINGTON — President Trump’s tax cuts provided a temporary jolt to the United States economy by putting more money into taxpayers’ pockets. The tariffs that Mr. Trump has grown so fond of may have the opposite effect.

Two new analyses show that the tariffs Mr. Trump is using to punish China, Mexico, Europe and other governments would more than wipe out any gains from his $1.5 trillion tax cut for low- and middle-income earners, leaving them with less money to spend into a consumer-driven economy. Higher earners would fare only slightly better, with their tax gains significantly eroded but not entirely washed away.

The potential for Mr. Trump’s tariffs to nullify his signature tax cut shows how the president’s trade war could undermine his biggest selling point going into his 2020 re-election campaign: a strong economy.

View the complete June 3 article by Jim Tankersley on The New York Times website here.

Workers Left Behind In Trump’s ‘Booming’ Economy

Americans are not happy, and for good reason: They continue to suffer financial stress caused by decades of flat income. And every time they make the slightest peep of complaint about a system rigged against them, the rich and powerful tell them to shut up because it is all their fault.

One percenters instruct them to work harder, pull themselves up by their bootstraps and stop bellyaching. Just get a second college degree, a second skill, a second job. Just send the spouse to work, downsize, take a staycation instead of a real vacation. Or don’t take one at all, just work harder and longer and better.

The barrage of blaming has persuaded; workers believe they deserve censure. And that’s a big part of the reason they’re unhappy. If only, they think, they could work harder and longer and better, they would get ahead. They bear the shame. They don’t blame the system: the Supreme Court, the Congress, the president. And yet, it is the system, the American system, that has conspired to crush them.

View the complete May 5 article by Leo Gerard on the National Memo website here.

The untold story of Trump’s ‘booming’ economy

Americans are not happy, and for good reason: They continue to suffer financial stress caused by decades of flat income. And every time they make the slightest peep of complaint about a system rigged against them, the rich and powerful tell them to shut up because it is all their fault.

One percenters instruct them to work harder, pull themselves up by their bootstraps and stop bellyaching. Just get a second college degree, a second skill, a second job. Just send the spouse to work, downsize, take a staycation instead of a real vacation. Or don’t take one at all, just work harder and longer and better.

The barrage of blaming has persuaded; workers believe they deserve censure. And that’s a big part of the reason they’re unhappy. If only, they think, they could work harder and longer and better, they would get ahead. They bear the shame. They don’t blame the system: the Supreme Court, the Congress, the president. And yet, it is the system, the American system, that has conspired to crush them.

View the complete May 4 article by Leo Gerard of the Independent Media Institute on the AlterNet website here.

Trump Owns the Economy Now, for Better or Worse

President Donald Trump, pictured here with (from left) John Barrasso, John Thune, Mike Pence, Roy Blunt and Mitch McConnell,. Credit: Alex Brandon, AP Photo

WASHINGTON — President Trump is getting exactly what he wants on the economy, but it may not last.

The Federal Reserve has abruptly stopped its march toward higher interest rates, as Mr. Trump demanded. The tax cuts he signed in late 2017 are in full swing. His attempt to rewrite the global rules of trade are underway, and he proclaims himself happy with the array of new tariffs he has imposed. His recent comments suggest he is unconcerned about slowdowns in China and Europe, which he considers economic rivals.

But while Mr. Trump points with pride to last year’s economic growth and promises even faster growth to come, there are signs that his most dependable talking point is eroding. On Thursday, the Commerce Department issued a downward revision of its estimates for growth in the fourth quarter, pushing one measure of the full year’s growth down as well.

Forecasters outside the White House, including officials at the Fed, expect growth to slow even more this year. Economic data suggests that slowdown is already underway in the first quarter. Manufacturing is losing some of its steam from last year’s rapid growth, and job creation is also moderating. Chief executives of some of the nation’s biggest companies see investment, hiring and sales growth all slowing this year. Three-quarters of business economists say they are more worried about growth undershooting their forecasts than overshooting it, and half have revised those forecasts downward for this year.

View the complete March 28 article by Jim Tankersley on The New York Times website here.

The Federal Reserve chairman is in demand amid economic danger signs

The Fed chairman is stepping up the number of group meetings on his dance card, including with House Democrats

It must be nice to get your own personal report on the economy from the head of the world’s largest central bank.

Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell met with roughly 70 House Republicans at the whip team meeting prior to Monday night votes, where, among other things, he talked about the Fed recently lowering its economic growth projections for 2019 and 2020.

While Powell frequently meets or calls individual members, such larger meetings appear to be rare, according to a review of his calendar.

View the complete March 27 article by Doug Sword on The Roll Call website here.

Trump rolls dice on uncertain economy

President Trump is doubling down on his bet that a strong economy is a key factor in his reelection effort next year.

The White House has held a series of events and interviews for Trump this week that are intended to show off his record.

The president met Thursday with CEOs at the Business Roundtable, one day after he extolled his dealmaking prowess to a group of workers at a factory in Lima, Ohio. He also sat down for an interview with Fox Business Network’s Maria Bartiromo.

View the complete March 21 article by Brett Samuels on The Hill website here.

Minimum-Wage Workers Have Lost Nearly a Year’s Salary to Inflation

America’s lowest-paid workers have lost nearly a full year’s pay since Congress last raised the federal minimum wage a decade ago. Every day, these workers’ losses continue to mount. Inflation has steadily eroded their pay, and as a result, a full-time, year-round worker earning $7.25 per hour will take an effective pay cut of $2,578 this year alone.* Over the past 10 years, lawmakers’ refusal to act has cost America’s lowest-paid workers a total of nearly $13,330—just shy of the $15,080 that a full-time worker earning $7.25 per hour takes home annually.

Today, minimum-wage workers would need more than 44 extra working days each year just to make the same in real terms as they did back in 2009, when the wage was last increased. As a consequence, this year’s Minimum Wage Workers’ Equal Pay Day—which marks the day on which minimum-wage workers finally catch up to their 2009 earnings—falls on March 7, 2019, more than nine weeks into the new year.

Lawmakers should take advantage of strong support from voters on both sides of the aisle to abolish this unhappy anniversary once and for all by passing the Raise the Wage Act of 2019.

View the complete February 7 article by Rachel West on the Center for American Progress website here.

The State of the Trump Economy

Then-presidential candidate Donald Trump speaks to guests during an event in Warren, Michigan, on March 4, 2016. Credit: Scott Olson, Getty

The longest partial federal government shutdown in American history may be over, but the economic consequences for people across the country endure. Decades of conservative rhetoric about smaller government were tested in real time, with disastrous costs for individuals, families, and businesses. On Tuesday night, President Donald Trump will deliver a State of the Union address that is sure to pass the blame for his shutdown onto others while he takes credit for an economy that has been growing for nine years. In his two years in office, President Trump has done everything in his power to set American workers and families back and place the country on the road to a low-wage, high-cost economy in which a few hands hold all the economic power. The 35-day shutdown is just the latest in a series of actions that hurt everyone except the wealthy and those with political connections.

Trump’s shutdown cost American families

The shutdown is the latest example of the Trump administration’s disregard for American workers and families. The Congressional Budget Office calculated that the five-week shutdown cost the U.S. economy $11 billion, $3 billion of which will never be recouped. But for millions of Americans, the shutdown’s effect on their paychecks was more apparent. About 800,000 federal workers were furloughed or worked without pay, and as many as 1.2 million contractors felt the impact—and may not receive back pay. In addition, shutdowns have a disproportionate effect on black workers and families. In fact, the proportion of federal workers who are black women is twice as high in the federal government as it is in the greater civilian workforce. At the beginning of the shutdown, about half of all federal workers were still required to show up to work without pay; yet that number grew as the Trump administration played favorites with agencies in response to lobbying from some industries. Continue reading “The State of the Trump Economy”

The Economic Betrayal in Trump’s False Promises

Supporters listen to then-presidential candidate Donald Trump at a campaign rally in Ohio, October 2016. Credit: Jeff Swensen, Getty

Routine dishonesty has been a defining characteristic of President Donald Trump’s campaign and tenure in the White House—and it should not be sugar-coated. At a staggering 8,158 false statements made over his first two years in office, Trump’s habit of lying can begin to seem mundane or even comical. But, for millions of American families living paycheck to paycheck, Trump’s unfulfilled economic promises are anything but trivial. Throughout his campaign, Trump pledged to quickly reverse sweeping economic trends that have left wages stagnant and large swaths of the country behind for decades, exploiting the understandable desire for systemic change in order to get elected. Once in office, however, he methodically executed an agenda to make those same problems worse.

Trump’s inability or unwillingness to assess the economy accurately and honestly has harmed the very people whose lives he promised to improve. A self-described advocate for “the forgotten men and women,” Trump’s economic priorities have instead heaped benefits on corporations and the wealthiest Americans, who were already reaping the vast majority of the economy’s rewards.

This was not a case of a presidential candidate with lofty aspirations meeting the reality of gridlock in Washington, particularly considering the advantage of having a Republican-controlled Congress. Trump’s core economic promises, which were the backbone of what he and others called “populism” or “economic nationalism” were—almost without fail—flat lies from the beginning.

View the complete article by Jesse Lee and Danielle Zessoules on the Center for American Progress website here.