October 21, 2018

Trump Tweets That a Blue Wave in November Would Hurt the Economy

“Think of what will happen to your now beautiful 401-k’s!”

President Donald Trump pauses as he speaks to media after a campaign rally before boarding Air Force One in Nevada.Carolyn Kaster/AP

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On Sunday afternoon, President Donald Trump boasted yet again about the country’s job growth, arguing it’s just one reason why voters should elect Republicans during the November midterms. If Democrats emerged victorious after the November midterms, Trump tweeted, they “can never do even nearly as well!” 

While White House economist Kevin Hassett claimed last month that Trump’s time in office has set off economic growth, the truth is that overall job growth has steadily improved and unemployment has fallen since former President Barack Obama was in office. And in the 19 months Trump has been president, 3.6 million jobs have been created, slightly less than the 3.9 million jobs created over the same period at the end of Obama’s time in office. “When you hear how great the economy is doing right now, let’s just remember when this recovery started,” Obama told a crowd at the University of Illinois in September.  

Trump has previously said that Democrats will end the sweeping tax cuts he passed in 2017, which he says have made the economy “the strongest it’s ever been in the history of our nation.” San Francisco Fed economists Tim Mahedy and Daniel J. Wilson warned that assuming tax cuts would spur economic growth in an already strong economy is “overly optimistic.” At the same time, Vox reports that the tax cuts have been responsible for a ballooning $779 billion federal deficit, the largest since 2012. Sen. Kamala Harris and other Democrats have called for repealing the tax cuts.

On Saturday, Trump said that Republicans were preparing to unveil a “very major tax cut” for middle-income households before November. Congress doesn’t reconvene until November 13. 

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WE'LL BE BLUNT

It is astonishingly hard keeping a newsroom afloat these days, and we need to raise $253,000 in online donations quickly, by October 7.

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Readers also told us to just give it to you straight when we need to ask for your support, and seeing how matter-of-factly explaining our inner workings, our challenges and finances, can bring more of you in has been a real silver lining. So our online membership lead, Brian, lays it all out for you in his personal, insider account (that literally puts his skin in the game!) of how urgent things are right now.

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