What Is Trump Doing For The Economy

Restoring American Leadership Abroad

Restored Americas leadership in the world and successfully negotiated to ensure our allies pay their fair share for our military protection.

• Secured a $400 billion increase in defense spending from NATO allies by 2024, and the number of members meeting their minimum obligations more than doubled.
• Worked to reform and streamline the United Nations and reduced spending by $1.3 billion.
• Allies, including Japan and the Republic of Korea, committed to increase burden-sharing.
• Protected our Second Amendment rights by announcing the United States will never ratify the UN Arms Trade Treaty.
• Returned 56 hostages and detainees from more than 24 countries.
• Worked to advance a free and open Indo-Pacific region, promoting new investments and expanding American partnerships.

Advanced peace through strength.

Renewed our cherished friendship and alliance with Israel and took historic action to promote peace in the Middle East.

Stood up against Communism and Socialism in the Western Hemisphere.

Ten Actions That Hurt Workers During Trumps First Year: How Trump And Congress Further Rigged The Economy In Favor Of The Wealthy

The tax cut law that President Trump boasts will make his wealthy friends a lot richer is just the latest in a series of betrayals of working people by the administration and Congress since Trump took the oath of office on January 20, 2017. In addition to passing a massive tax cut for wealthy business owners, Trump and Republicans in Congress have rolled back important worker protections, advanced nominees to key administration posts who have a history of exploiting working people, and taken other actions that further rig the system in favor of corporate interests and the wealthiest Americans.

Here are the 10 worst things Congress and Trump have done to undermine pay growth and erode working conditions for the nations workers.

A Failure To Prevent Layoffs Of State And Local Workers

In the weeks following the coronavirus outbreak, it became clear to state governments that they would have to increase spending to unanticipated levels. Yet a lack of aid from the federal government forced states and localities, who have much stricter budget requirements than the federal government, to cut payrolls for more than 1 million employees, representing a 5.2 percent drop in the total nonfederal government employment level. Without strong guidelines from the White House, states were forced to fend for themselves, often bidding against one another to provide their frontline health care workers with protective gear. This, coupled with the drop in state and local tax revenue, has led to budget crises across the country that could result in significantly deeper layoffs over the coming months. A recent survey by the National League of Cities illustrates the true scale of this problem, finding that more than 98 percent of cities with populations between 50,000 and 500,000 have reported an anticipated revenue shortfall this year.

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How He Did It

Trumps economic program was very simple: an attack on taxes and regulations with an extra dose of spending on infrastructure and the military that would create a supply shock to a moribund economy.

On the tax side, the White House pushed through a massive $1.5 trillion reform plan that sliced the highest-in-the-world corporate tax from 35 percent to 21 percent and lowered rates for millions of taxpayers, though the cuts for individuals will expire in 2025.

On deregulation, Trump ordered that rules be pared back or eliminated across the board. During his time in office, Congress has cut back on the Dodd-Frank banking reforms, particularly in areas affecting regional and community institutions, rolled back a multitude of environmental protections that he said were killing jobs and took a hatchet to dozens of other rules.

During the first year of his administration, significant regulatory activity had declined 74 percent from where it was in the same period of the Obama administration, according to data collected by Bridget Dooling, research professor at GWs Regulatory Studies Center.

The Dodd-Frank rollbacks have been particularly helpful to community banks, whose share prices collectively are up more than 25 percent over the past year. Small-cap stocks in general have strongly outperformed the broader market, gaining 23 percent over the past 12 months at a time when the S& P 500 is up 17 percent.

Trump Vs Biden: Two Different Roads To Growth

On 3 November, US citizens will head for the ballot boxes to cast their vote. The Republican and Democrat presidential candidates differ substantially as far as their economic policy plans are concerned. While both Trump and Biden want to boost economic growth and reduce unemployment, their approaches are radically different. Trump wants to grow the economy by reducing taxes and regulation, whereas Biden seeks to achieve this through increased government spending and investment. In this special report we try to assess the impact of their policy plans on a range of macroeconomic variables. How much GDP growth can be generated through their plans and how will this affect the unemployment rate? And what do their plans mean for the public debt to GDP ratio and real disposable income?

Trumps road to growth has been visible in his first term: large tax cuts and deregulation. In his second term he wants to preserve these tax cuts and go even further. In contrast, Biden wants to raise taxes for corporations and high-income households. This should pay for increased government investment in clean energy and infrastructure and spending on education, healthcare, childcare and social security. Redistribution of income is clearly a Democratic objective. Meanwhile, the Republicans put a stronger emphasis on fiscal prudence and intend to cut government spending.

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Taking Billions Out Of Workers Pockets By Weakening Or Abandoning Regulations That Protect Their Pay

In 2017 the Trump administration hurt workers pay in many ways, including acts to dismantle two key regulations that protect the pay of low- to middle-income workers: it failed to defend a 2016 rule strengthening overtime protections for these workers, and it took steps to gut regulations that protect servers from having their tips taken by their employers. These failures to protect workers pay could cost workers an estimated $7 billion per year.

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What Does Joe Biden Say About The Economy

Biden claims that rather than a V-shaped recovery, the US is heading for a K-shape where wealthy Americans are recovering quickly but those on lower income have not.

Biden said he would increase corporate taxes and create more jobs by bringing manufacturing back to the US that would “create an additional $1 trillion in economic growth”.

In this plan, the government would spend $400billion to buy American products and services, while $300billion would go towards research and development.

Biden’s climate change plan, called the “Clean Energy Revolution,” would invest $2 trillion into combating the planet’s greatest threat.

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Trumps Impact On The Us Economy

Georgia Strong | United States Fellow

As American President Donald Trumps first Presidential term comes to a close, his economic efforts can start to be fully evaluated. Broadly, Trumps economic policy was greater employment for blue collar workers, and economic growth of 4 to 6 per cent. One of the first programs implemented by President Trump when he was elected was the corporate tax cut scheme. This move likely stimulated the US economy to some extent as gross domestic product rose to 2.9 per cent for 2018. However, the long term economic benefits are wearing off as business investment has declined for the previous two quarters. By February 2020 President Trump was expected to increase the federal deficit by 74 per cent over 4 years.

To put Trumps debt in context, the US annual budget deficit was expected to approximate 4.6 per cent of GDP for 2020, as calculated in January prior to the global economic downturn. Similarly, President Trumps first three years in office all recorded a deficit exceeding 4 per cent of GDP. The only other time the US has partaken in sustained budget deficits of this magnitude is during World War II. A typical budget deficit averages 1.5 per cent of GDP when the economy exhibits relatively strong growth as was the case in 2016 to 2019.

Georgia Strong is the United States Fellow for Young Australians in International Affairs.

ABOUT

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Deficits Arent All Created Equal

The USCBC studys methods dont add up in other ways. This kind of trade analysis cant distinguish between the employment impact of nineteenth-century U.S. deficits and contemporary deficits. This matters because the two are categorically different. In the nineteenth century when the United States suffered from capital scarcity, foreign capital inflows boosted U.S. investment. But in the capital-saturated United States of today, excess foreign capital inflows and the deficits they trigger end up reducing savings, not boosting investment.

This difference is hugely important. Basic accounting identities teach that net capital inflows must by definition result in either higher investment or lower savings. Because American trade deficits that result in higher investment cannot possibly have the same impact as American trade deficits that repress savings, there are serious problems with a methodology that cannot distinguish between the two.

To sum up, deficits can be either positive or negative for growth and unemployment depending on the underlying macroeconomic conditions. A research methodology that fails to notice or account for this is likely to miss the big picture.

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Combatting The Opioid Crisis

Brought unprecedented attention and support to combat the opioid crisis.

Took action to seize illegal drugs and punish those preying on innocent Americans.

• In FY 2019, ICE HSI seized 12,466 pounds of opioids including 3,688 pounds of fentanyl, an increase of 35 percent from FY 2018.
• Seized tens of thousands of kilograms of heroin and thousands of kilograms of fentanyl since 2017.
• The Department of Justice prosecuted more fentanyl traffickers than ever before, dismantled 3,000 drug trafficking organizations, and seized enough fentanyl to kill 105,000 Americans.
• DOJ charged more than 65 defendants collectively responsible for distributing over 45 million opioid pills.
• Brought kingpin designations against traffickers operating in China, India, Mexico, and more who have played a role in the epidemic in America.
• Indicted major Chinese drug traffickers for distributing fentanyl in the U.S for the first time ever, and convinced China to enact strict regulations to control the production and sale of fentanyl.

Many Achievements Of The Presidents Pre

President Trump has sought to turn the focus of the November election toward the economy during the campaigns final stretch. His presidency has been characterized by two economies. While the first, which lasted until March, was good for millions of Americans, the Covid-19 era economy has been historically bad.

KEY TAKEAWAYS

1. Jobs were better than expected until the crisis began.

The unemployment rate fell from 4.7% shortly after Trumps election to 3.5% by the end of 2019, below Federal Reserve expectations of about 4.5%. That was partly driven by Trumps corporate and individual income-tax cuts and a that reset spending caps Republicans had demanded in the Obama era. When the coronavirus struck, the economic damage from social distancing and states shutdowns helped to drive the jobless rate to 14.7% in April this year. The rate fell faster than the Fed expected, reaching 7.9% in September, but the jobs recovery is far from complete. Five million more people were unemployed in September than when Trump took office.

2. The growth rate rose, but not as expected.

3. Gains for minority workers were reversed.

4. Blue collar jobs were hit hard by Covid-19.

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How They Impacted The Us Economy

Kimberly Amadeo is an expert on U.S. and world economies and investing, with over 20 years of experience in economic analysis and business strategy. She is the President of the economic website World Money Watch. As a writer for The Balance, Kimberly provides insight on the state of the present-day economy, as well as past events that have had a lasting impact.

Erika Rasure, is the Founder of Crypto Goddess, the first learning community curated for women to learn how to invest their moneyand themselvesin crypto, blockchain, and the future of finance and digital assets. She is a financial therapist and is globally-recognized as a leading personal finance and cryptocurrency subject matter expert and educator.

Republican Donald John Trump was the 45th president of the United States, serving from 2017 to 2021. In 2016, Trump campaigned under the slogan “Make America Great Again” to garner the support of voters who felt that the country had lost stature. Donald Trump was a firm supporter of economic nationalism.

Learn more about President Trump’s economic policies and how they affected the U.S. economy.

The Obama Economy Vs The Trump Economy

Thursday, November 29, 2018

During his final days in office, I gave a thumbs-down assessment of Barack Obamas presidency. Simply stated, he increased the burden of government during his tenure, and that led to anemic economic numbers.

Now the economy seems to be doing a bit better, which is leading my friends on the left to make two impossible-to-reconcile claims.

Ive previously explained that the first argument doesnt hold water. Today, lets address the second argument.

Writing in the Wall Street Journal, former CEO Andy Puzder claims that Trump easily wins over Obama when you look at the numbers:

For eight years under President Obama, the growing burden of government suppressed the economic recovery that should have followed the recession of 2008-09. Mr. Obama nonetheless has claimed responsibility for todays boom, asking Americans in September to remember when this recovery started. Yet it wasnt until President Trump took office that the economy surged. The result is a rising tide that is lifting boats across every class and region of the country. Today unemployment rests at 3.7%, near a 50-year low. Since the government began reporting the data, unemployment has never been as low as it is today for African-Americans, Latinos, Asians and people with only a high-school education.

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Tariffs Raise Prices And Reduce Economic Growth

Economists generally agree free trade increases the level of economic output and income, while conversely, trade barriers reduce economic output and income. Historical evidence shows tariffs raise prices and reduce available quantities of goods and services for U.S. businesses and consumers, which results in lower income, reduced employment, and lower economic output.

Tariffs could reduce U.S. output through a few channels. One possibility is a tariff may be passed on to producers and consumers in the form of higher prices. Tariffs can raise the cost of parts and materials, which would raise the price of goods using those inputs and reduce private sector output. This would result in lower incomes for both owners of capital and workers. Similarly, higher consumer prices due to tariffs would reduce the after-tax value of both labor and capital income. Because higher prices would reduce the return to labor and capital, they would incentivize Americans to work and invest less, leading to lower output.

Alternatively, the U.S. dollar may appreciate in response to tariffs, offsetting the potential price increase on U.S. consumers. The more valuable dollar, however, would make it more difficult for exporters to sell their goods on the global market, resulting in lower revenues for exporters. This would also result in lower U.S. output and incomes for both workers and owners of capital, reducing incentives for work and investment and leading to a smaller economy.

Appendix E: Modelling Approach

To assess the economic impact of the policy plans of Trump and Biden, we use the National Institute Global Econometric Model developed by NIESR. NiGEM is a macro-econometric world trade model, estimated in a New-Keynesian framework. This means agents are forward-looking, but rigidities result in a slow adjustment process in case of external events or shocks.

Using NiGEM has a couple of benefits. First, the model allows us to assess the impact of policies of both presidential candidates on several key variables in the short to medium term, such as the government debt ratio, economic growth and employment. Second, NiGEM is an error-correction model, which means that short-term deviations of GDP from a countrys growth potential are made up eventually. So, in the long run, growth is driven by structural factors, such as capital formation, structural employment and labor-augmented technological change.

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Table 1 Candidates Counties Won And Share Of Gdp In 2016 And 2020

Note: 2020 figures reflect unofficial results from 99% of counties. Figures for 2020 represent results from 100% of counties for which 2018 GDP data are available. Some county equivalents have been consolidated into counties to match the geography of BEA GDP data.

So, while the elections winner may have changed, the nations economic geography remains rigidly divided. Biden captured virtually all of the counties with the biggest economies in the country , including flipping the few that Clinton did not win in 2016.

In short, 2020s map continues to reflect a striking split between the large, dense, metropolitan counties that voted Democratic and the mostly exurban, small-town, or rural counties that voted Republican. Blue and red America reflect two very different economies: one oriented to diverse, often college-educated workers in professional and digital services occupations, and the other whiter, less-educated, and more dependent on traditional industries.

Altogether, those losses shaved about 3 percentage points worth of GDP off the economic base of Trump counties. That reduced the share of the nations GDP produced by Republican-voting counties to a new low in recent times.

Why does this matter? This economic rift that persists in dividing the nation is a problem because it underscores the near-certainty of both continued clashes between the political parties and continued alienation and misunderstandings.