by Sheri Urban
On Monday, former President Barack Obama attempted to take credit for President Donald Trump’s booming economy.
“Eleven years ago today, near the bottom of the worst recession in generations, I signed the Recovery Act, paving the way for more than a decade of economic growth and the longest streak of job creation in American history,” Obama posted Monday morning.
It didn’t take long for the backlash to take down those claims.
Team Trump’s Response
President Donald Trump’s team was quick to respond to the post, releasing a statement to Fox News mere hours after Obama’s tweet was published.
First the President slammed right back:
“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.”
He continued…
James Woods and Ted Cruz Weigh In
“The notion that you did anything but destroy this nation’s economy is beyond hilarious,” posted famed actor and outspoken conservative James Woods.
“Those jobs are never coming back. What’s he going to do, wave a magic wand?” Woods said, quoting Obama during the 2016 presidential campaign.
“Yes, did exactly that,” the actor said of Trump. “Your only sad legacy was your blatant lies about ObamaCare.”
Senator Ted Cruz seconded Woods:
Even Liberal Outlets Correct Obama’s Claims
Left-leaning news site Axios released a report after Obama’s tweet, stating that the “Average economic growth under President Trump has outpaced the growth under Barack Obama.”
Trump-hating leftist news site Al Jazeera added: “The US jobs market is going gangbusters, which could help Trump.”
And CNBC reported that the Trump performance is so good, that “Goldman Sachs is saying the economy is nearly recession-proof”
National Review Finishes the Job
National Review highlighted just some of the many Trump’s economic accomplishments that put Obama to shame:
The census report ten days ago revealed workers’ earnings increasing at 3.4 percent annually, a rate not seen since the best of the Reagan years, and the poverty rate has declined to 11.8 percent, the best figure that has been recorded since the end of the Clinton administration and still resolutely proceeding in the right direction. Unemployment is at its lowest percentage since the Lyndon Johnson administration more than 50 years ago (and the numbers then were helped by having 545,000 conscripts in Vietnam). Minority groups are the principal beneficiaries of the Trump economy; this isn’t trickle-down, it’s surge-up. Average income for female-led single-parent households jumped 7.6 percent last year, well ahead of gains in higher income groups.
The poverty rate among female-led households fell 2.7 percent for African Americans, and 4 percent for Hispanics. Industries largely populated by women (and, historically, exploited women), especially hospitality and, to a lesser extent, health care, showed strong earnings gains, even as unemployment rates for African-American and Hispanic women fell to under 4.5 percent.
Another partisan Democratic falsehood that is exposed by the census is the myth that the middle class is shrinking. The percentage of total families at the lowest economic levels has fallen by over 1 whole percent and the brackets from $50,000 to $150,000 and above $200,000 have both increased by almost 1 whole percent (several million people in each case). There were sharp increases in the incomes of younger families (up to age 34).
The rate of GDP growth was decelerating in Obama’s last year. It went from 2.3% in Q2, to 1.9% in Q3 to 1.8% in Q4 of 2016. Under Trump, GDP growth has averaged 2.9%. It was 4.2% last quarter and might be higher in the current one.
The stock market also was stuck in neutral for a whole year before the November 2016 elections. The Dow is up by some 45% since then.
Real median family income didn’t budge from August 2015 to November 2016, according to Sentier Research. It’s up more than 4% since Trump came into office. Wages are on the upswing.
