Tax Cut And Jobs Act Deregulation And National Debt
Even before the virus further exacerbated U.S. income inequality, some experts say Trumps economic policies favored the wealthy and left the poor and middle class behind.
His Tax Cuts and Jobs Act in December 2017 provided major tax breaks to corporations and wealthy individuals. The policy, among other things, reduced the corporate income tax rate from 35% to 21%.
Frankel called the policy beyond ironic for a president who campaigned in 2016 on being the champion of the working man or working person and campaigned on draining the swamp in Washington.
Shierholz said this policy absolutely increased inequality and the vast majority of the benefits of those tax cuts went to the already very wealthy.
The economists also noted that the policy came at a time when unemployment was relatively low and the economy in good shape.
Thats not the time to be giving away trillions of dollars to the wealthy, Frankel said. When you have a bad shock like the global financial crisis of 2008-09 or like the coronavirus crisis that were still going through thats the time to increase government spending and expansionary fiscal policy, but you lose the ability to do that if you gave it away.
NYUs Bowmaker noted that some can make the case that the corporate tax rate was a little bit too high and would welcome the tax cuts.
Despite his goal, the debt has ballooned under Trump. The total national debt has skyrocketed by more than $7 trillion during Trumps tenure.
Mideast Diplomats: Trump Is Better Than Obama
At a high-level conference in Morocco, Arab diplomats say they would rather have a U.S. administration that spouts anti-Muslim rhetoric to get elected than one that makes deals with Iran.
Reuters
MARRAKECH, MorrocoDisappointed by the Obama administration that promised warmer relations with the Arab world, Mideast diplomats say they are looking forward to dealing with a more pragmaticand directPresident Donald Trump, no matter what he might have said about Muslims to get elected.
No, no, it doesnt bother me, said Youssef Amrani, adviser to Moroccan King Mohammed VI, when asked about Trumps call for a Muslim ban and National Security Advisor nominee Mike Flynns tweet saying fear of Muslims is rational.
The strategic dialogue is between two governments and it will continue, he said, side-stepping any direct comment on Trumps campaign rhetoric.
They prefer someone who hates Islam to an administration that loves Iran, said one high ranking Mideast diplomat, in a less-diplomatic comment that was echoed by many at the Atlantic Dialogues in Marrakech, here to debate the security of African, Mideast and European nations and their ties to the U.S.
The Arab world is more sophisticated than perhaps Americans realize. We recognize campaign rhetoric. Theyll flip when in office, the diplomat predicted, insisting on anonymity to discuss her countrys disappointment with the Obama administration.
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How Long Is The Economy Still Considered Obamas Or Trumps
The U.S. economy is so large and complex that its difficult to determine exactly when one presidents policies start to have more of an impact than the previous presidents. It may be easier to measure the impact of specific policies rather than trying to pin down the effects of an entire administration.
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Comparing Trump And Obama In The Final Stretches Of Their First Terms
Democrats were not pleased with President Barack Obama in August 2011. The country was recovering from The Great Recession, and Democrats were battling with Republicans in Congress over the debt ceiling. The fiscal fights arrived amid slides in the economy and fears of another American recession, and the Obama administration watched key polling indicators shift into negative territory as the economy teetered.
Most Americans, including members of Obamas own party, thought the country was on the wrong track before his re-election.
Its not unlike what President Donald Trump is facing today. Republican belief that the country is off on the wrong track has doubled from early January to this week as the nation experiences economic turmoil as coronavirus cases continue to rise.
The Economist/YouGov Poll asks Americans each week to share whether they believe things in this country today are generally headed in the right direction or off on the wrong track. Since YouGov asks this question weekly for each administration, it is possible to compare how Americans felt about the direction of the country from President Obamas inauguration through his re-election in 2012 against the same data from President Trumps inauguration up to present time.
It took several months before Obama regained his partys faith, but by January 2012, the high disapproval leveled off and a plurality of Democrats thought the country was headed in the right direction .
Wages Grew Steadily Under Bush And Slowed Under Obama They Started Picking Up Again Under Trump But The Pandemic’s Impact Skewed This Year’s Data
Wage growth is usually a good indicator of how much the economy is benefiting average workers. But the chart above illustrates the shortfalls of relying too much on a single metric given the devastation that the pandemic has caused.
Wage gains were steady for most of the Bush administration, ranging between 2% and 4% each year. Then it took a hit during the Great Recession, and wage growth was anemic for much of the Obama presidency.
The initial years of the Trump presidency coincided with a rise in wages as the economy expanded and employers competed to hire workers. They grew above 3% starting in 2018.
Millions of low-wage workers were sidelined in the early months of the pandemic, while many higher-wage white collar workers were able to continue working remotely.
It artificially dragged up the average wage for those still able to work, according to an analysis from the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco. It’s expected to drop as more hourly workers regain their jobs.
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A Dearth Of Shared Facts And Information
One of the few things that Republicans and Democrats could agree on during Trumps tenure is that they didnt share the same set of facts. In a 2019 survey, around three-quarters of Americans said most Republican and Democratic voters disagreed not just over political plans and policies, but over basic facts.
Much of the disconnect between the parties involved the news media, which Trump routinely disparaged as fake news and the enemy of the people. Republicans, in particular, expressed widespread and growing distrust of the press. In a 2019 survey, Republicans voiced more distrust than trust in 2o of the 30 specific news outlets they were asked about, even as Democrats expressed more trust than distrust in 22 of those same outlets. Republicans overwhelmingly turned to and trusted one outlet included in the study Fox News even as Democrats used and expressed trust in a wider range of sources. The study concluded that the two sides placed their trust in two nearly inverse media environments.
Some of the media organizations Trump criticized most vocally saw the biggest increases in GOP distrust over time. The share of Republicans who said they distrusted CNN rose from 33% in a 2014 survey to 58% by 2019. The proportion of Republicans who said they distrusted The Washington Post and The New York Times rose 17 and 12 percentage points, respectively, during that span.3
Economic Recovery Under Obama
At CNN, we start with the facts. Visit CNN’s home for Facts First.Facts First:If you look solely at the average rate of GDP growth, it’s true that that the economy recovered more slowly after the Great Recession than during previous rebounds. But growth hasn’t been exceptionally better under Trump.GDP growthexperienced since World War II
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Us 2020 Election: The Economy Under Trump In Six Charts
Claim: President Trump says he built the greatest ever US economy prior to the coronavirus outbreak and that now its recovering faster than ever.
Reality Check verdict: Its true the economy was doing well prior to the pandemic continuing a trend which began during the Obama administration but there have been periods when it was much stronger.
The US economy was then hit by the biggest economic contraction ever recorded as a result of the pandemic. It has since bounced back strongly, but hasnt regained all its losses.
Weve looked at the economy in six key charts.
The latest numbers show economic output surged by an annualised 33% in the third quarter of 2020, following a record fall as a consequence of the coronavirus pandemic.
The recovery, although strong, hasnt yet brought economic activity back to pre-pandemic levels.
Mr Trump has said the recent recovery in growth is the biggest in the history of our country by almost triplethats bigger than any nation.
Yes, it is the biggest quarterly increase, but by more like double outdoing the previous peak of 16.7% in the first quarter of 1950.
However, Mr Trumps comparison with other countries isnt right. From July to September this year, the economy grew by 7.4% in the US . This is less than Germany, Italy and the eurozone as a whole.
During his first three years in office, President Trump oversaw an annual average growth of 2.5%.
Bush Was The Last President To Inherit A Budget Surplus And Started Running A Deficit Obama Cut It Though Trump Ran Bigger Ones As A Result Of His Tax Cuts And The Federal Response To The Pandemic
The federal deficit is the gap between tax revenue and federal spending. During periods of growth, the deficit tends to shrink because government spending on safety net benefits lessens.
Bush inherited a budget surplus of $128 billion for fiscal year 2001. It was the last time the US had money left over. The wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, as well as a series of tax cuts, erased it and increased the deficit.
Obama ran large deficits to end the Great Recession, passing an $830 billion stimulus package in 2009. He later cut the deficit over half by the time he left office.
Similar to Obama and Bush, Trump has also relied on deficit spending. It widened by $1.5 trillion with the passage of the 2017 GOP tax cuts, contrary to the administration’s claims that the law would pay for itself.
The pandemic, however, prompted $3 trillion in federal spending many economists say was needed to address the public health and economic crises.
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New Concerns Over American Democracy
Throughout his tenure, Donald Trump questioned the legitimacy of democratic institutions, from the free press to the federal judiciary and the electoral process itself. In surveys conducted between 2016 and 2019, more than half of Americans said Trump had little or no respect for the nations democratic institutions and traditions, though these views, too, split sharply along partisan lines.
The 2020 election brought concerns about democracy into much starker relief. Even before the election, Trump had cast doubt on the security of mail-in voting and refused to commit to a peaceful transfer of power in the event that he lost. When he did lose, he refused to publicly concede defeat, his campaign and allies filed dozens of unsuccessful lawsuits to challenge the results and Trump personally pressured state government officials to retroactively tilt the outcome in his favor.
Most Americans placed at least some blame on Trump for the riot at the Capitol, including 52% who said he bore a lot of responsibility for it. Again, however, partisans views differed widely: 81% of Democrats said Trump bore a lot of responsibility, compared with just 18% of Republicans.
Biden Is Closer To Trump Than To Obama
Democrats unease comes from knowing President Biden is closer to President Trump than to President Obama. They know that in order to succeed, Biden must be closer to Obama than to Trump. What they do not know is how America will view Biden once they have known him longer and the going gets tougher.
Looking broadly at Bidens polling numbers, they appear pretty good especially in comparison to Trumps. Real Clear Politicss average of national polling on March 15, showed Biden with 53 percent approval and 42 percent disapproval. Such a positive spread seems a comfortable margin.
Looking inside those numbers though shows cause for concern. Among RCPs eight listed polls, only one, Rasmussen, polled likely voters . How do we know this? I clicked on the Rasmussen link but didnt see anything but the results the rest at best polled registered voters . Of course, the people who put Biden in office are those who actually voted they are also the ones who could take him out in four years.
In Rasmussens March 10 results, Bidens approval was just 50 percent and his disapproval 48 percent. This is still better than where Trump was on the same day in 2017 , but a far sight from where Obama was on the same day in 2009 . Despite the favorable comparison that won Biden the White House, Biden is closer to Trump than he is to Obama.
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A Reckoning Over Racial Inequality
Racial tensions were a constant undercurrent during Trumps presidency, often intensified by the public statements he made in response to high-profile incidents.
The death of George Floyd, in particular, brought race to the surface in a way that few other recent events have. The videotaped killing of the unarmed, 46-year-old Black man by a White police officer in Minneapolis was among several police killings that sparked national and international protests in 2020 and led to an outpouring of public support for the Black Lives Matter movement, including from corporations, universities and other institutions. In a survey shortly after Floyds death in May, two-thirds of U.S. adults including majorities across all major racial and ethnic groups voiced support for the movement, and use of the #BlackLivesMatter hashtag surged to a .
Attitudes began to change as the protests wore on and sometimes turned violent, drawing sharp condemnation from Trump. By September, support for the Black Lives Matter movement had slipped to 55% largely due to decreases among White adults and many Americans questioned whether the nations renewed focus on race would lead to changes to address racial inequality or improve the lives of Black people.
Trumps Foreign Policy Moments
Donald J. Trumps presidency marked a profound departure from U.S. leadership in areas such as trade and diplomacy, as well as an across-the-board toughening of immigration policies.
In his inaugural address, President Donald J. Trump announces an America First approach to foreign policy and trade, which centers on reducing U.S. trade deficits and rebalancing burden sharing within alliances. Trump promises to unite the civilized world against radical Islamic terrorism and emphasizes that it is the right of all nations to put their own interests first.
Trump directs the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative to withdraw the United States from the Trans-Pacific Partnership, a twelve-country, Asia-focused trade agreement the United States had championed under the Barack Obama administration.
The president signs an executive order banning nationals of six Muslim-majority countries from traveling to the United States for ninety days. The order, later amended to include an additional two countries, also indefinitely freezes refugee intake from Syria. Days later, a federal judge in Washington State blocks part of the order, beginning a series of judicial challenges. That same week, Trump signs two other executive orders concerning immigration. One directs federal funds to the construction of a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border, and the other bars so-called sanctuary cities from receiving federal grants.
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Fact Check: Graphic Comparing Trump And Obama Is From 2018 And Contains An Approval Rating Error
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In November 2020, a 2018 graphic comparing President Donald Trump and President Barack Obama by the numbers resurfaced on social media. The chart presents figures showing the Trump administration had outperformed the Obama administration in terms of presidential approval, unemployment, job growth, the federal deficit and gross domestic product growth.
One such post, first shared on Facebook in Sept. 2018, can be found here . At the time of this articles publication, the post had been shared over 17,000 times.
The post began to circulate again in late 2020, both leading up to the 2020 presidential election and following major news outlets decision to call the race for Joe Biden . In these later shares, no date for the figures being compared is given, which may have led some to conclude that the figures were recent. Moreover, these figures lack meaning without considering the wider economic context in which they were recorded.
As reported here by Snopes on Aug. 13, 2018, President Trumps oldest child, Donald Trump, Jr., shared the graphic in a now-deleted Instagram on Aug. 8 . The image, however, was a doctored version of a graphic that was originally used during a CNN fact-checking segment regarding a tweet posted by President Trump about his approval numbers, according to Snopes.
Obama Was A Better Jobs President Than Trump
Trump threw another temper tantrum after President Obama touted the economic recovery under his administration from the depths of the Great Recession. Now, Trump is falsely trying to take credit for Obamas success and claim that he has a better jobs record thats simply not true.
LIE: Trump took credit for an economic boom and claimed that he has a better jobs record than President Obama.
Trump: Did you hear the latest con job? President Obama is now trying to take credit for the Economic Boom taking place under the Trump Administration. He had the WEAKEST recovery since the Great Depression, despite Zero Fed Rate & MASSIVE quantitative easing. NOW, best jobs numbers.
FACT: The economy added1.5 million more jobs in Obamas last three years than Trumps first three years.
CNN: During Trumps first 36 months in office, the US economy has gained 6.6 million jobs. But during a comparable 36-month period at the end of Obamas tenure, employers added 8.1 million jobs, or 23% more than what has been added since Trump took office.
FACT: Trump almost ruined the job-creation streak Obama created.
New York Times: The revisions kept alive the economys record-setting streak of monthly job gains, but by the slimmest of margins. The new figures show that employers added just 1,000 jobs last February, down from 56,000 before the revision.
FACT: The unemployment rate fell more than 5% under Obama from the peak of the recession, but has only declined another 1.1% under Trump.
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