(1/10) The White House and congressional Republicans claim that personal income growth has nearly doubled under Trump. As usual, they are fudging the numbers. #FactsMatter 
(2/10) To start, @WhiteHouseCEA looks at growth over the prior year. So when it starts counting from inauguration, Trump’s numbers include gains from before his time in office. In effect, Republicans are taking credit for some of Obama’s achievements.
(3/10) Further, the focus on average growth is a misleading way to measure middle-class income, considering the wealthy skew data higher. We should focus on median income, which looks at Americans in the middle of the income distribution—“typical” households. This is Econ 101.
(4/10) The @WhiteHouseCEA’s claim starts to fall apart when we consider the right number—median income. It shows during the last 2 years of Obama, annual household income rose by about $4,800. This is three times more than the $1,400 gain during the first 2 years of Trump. Oops!
(5/10) The GOP’s sleight-of-hand method of measuring income growth from the first day of the Trump administration ignores the fact that the President’s signature economic policy, the 2017 tax cuts, wasn’t signed into law until almost a year later. #EconTwitter #FactsMatter
(6/10) The tax law gave the economy a small jolt, but at a very high cost—$1.9 trillion in new federal debt. washingtonpost.com/business/2019/…
(7/10) Business investment has declined for 2 straight quarters & @nytimes, @CRS4Congress and @Penn’s @BudgetModel found little relationship between the tax cut and investment.
(8/10) The $1.9 trillion in deficit-financed tax cuts are going to help the fortunate few, with 99% of benefits going to the top 5% in 2027. It was far from the middle-class tax cut Americans were promised and was a missed opportunity of massive proportions. #FactsMatter
(9/10) Other policies, like President Trump’s trade war, will reduce GDP by an estimated 0.3 percentage points by next year. Tariffs have already helped drive manufacturing into recession, and the economy as a whole is losing steam as a result. cnbc.com/2019/12/02/ism…
(10/10) While we can’t fact check all of the White House’s hundreds of false claims about the economy, we also couldn’t let something as important as data on household income slide. @WhiteHouseCEA should know better. #FactsMatter washingtonpost.com/politics/2019/…
