On Economy, Trump Is Right, Obama Wrong cfif.org/v/index.php/co… via @CFIFonline
@CFIFonline Americans must decide this year whether to pursue President Trump’s course of greater market freedom that has brought us this unprecedented economic prosperity, or return to an economic agenda of higher taxation, more regulation and top-down bureaucratic sclerosis.
@CFIFonline Because the fact is that President Trump is right, and Obama is wrong. By the numbers, Obama’s assertions simply don’t square with economic fact, and a return to his brand of economic policies would return us to the ugly realities of his economic record.
@CFIFonline First, the U.S. economy was rebounding before Obama even took office, and certainly well before his “stimulus” was signed or took effect.
@CFIFonline The recession began in the third quarter of 2008, when our economy contracted by 1.9%, and bottomed out in the fourth quarter of 2008 with an 8.2% contraction.
@CFIFonline But by the quarter beginning in January 2009, the trajectory had turned upward to 5.4% contraction, and by the second quarter of 2009 the contraction was just 0.5%. And by June 2009, less than six months into Obama’s term, the recession had officially ended with 1.3% growth.
@CFIFonline Now, Obama and his apologists simultaneously claim that he was responsible for ending a recession when he hadn’t been in office for half a year, but also claim credit for an economy flourishing over three years into President Trump’s term. That’s textbook cognitive dissonance.
@CFIFonline In Obama’s ensuing eight years his policies caused the most anemic cyclical “recovery” in U.S. history. Whereas Obama promised that unemployment wouldn’t exceed 8% under his “stimulus,” instead we suffered unemployment above 8% for the longest stretch since recordkeeping began.
@CFIFonline Additionally, we never reached even 3% annual economic growth in his eight years as president, compared to the 3.3% annual growth average since World War II. Compounding matters, Obama added as much debt as all presidents preceding him combined.
@CFIFonline Before 2009 the largest deficit in U.S. history was $450 billion, but Obama brought us four consecutive years over $1 trillion. And all it brought us was the worst “recovery” in U.S. history. That’s Obama’s eight-year economic legacy
@CFIFonline Fast-forward three years, and Americans now enjoy what is in many ways the healthiest economy in human history. Black and Hispanic unemployment have plummeted to record lows. People who dropped out of the workforce under Obama have returned.
@CFIFonline There are now one million more available jobs in America than there are unemployed people to fill them. Wages are finally rising at a more substantial rate.
@CFIFonline We’ve gone from malaise in 2016 to record prosperity in 2020, and all because President Trump immediately reversed Obama’s economic policies in January 2017 by deregulating and cutting taxes.
@CFIFonline Fortunately, polls show that Americans rightfully credit Trump, not Obama, for current economic conditions. According to a Gallup survey released last week, Americans credit Trump with recent years’ improvement by an 11% margin.
@CFIFonline And according to a Fox News poll released in January, respondents by a 42% to 9% margin state Trump is responsible for current economic conditions, not Obama.
@CFIFonline Similarly, a survey conducted by The Hill “found that 49 percent of respondents attributed today’s economy to Trump, while 24 percent of respondents credited Obama.”
@CFIFonline That’s got to hurt if you’re Barack Obama or one of his apologists, and it explains why Obama couldn’t resist attempting to reclaim credit this week in his tweet. But Americans appear to know better
