The Day Trump Broke Through the Noise — and Laid Out a Future Agenda
It’s to get inflation and interest rates down, using oil and gas to energize a growth economy.
When President Trump had the chance during his recent NBC interview — when he was able to break through the noise — he was able to outline a future agenda, much of it on the economy. Mr. Trump talked about getting inflation and interest rates down, especially by reopening the spigots for liquid gold, a.k.a., oil and gas, a.k.a., fossil fuels.
One of the former president’s key points that gets overlooked is selling liquefied natural gas to Europe and Asia. Even at lower prices with increased production, there’d be a revenue windfall for America — a windfall that could lead to reducing the federal debt burden and perhaps also the federal tax burden.
Mr. Trump also thrashed President Biden’s policies on electric vehicles, including electric trucks. He emphasized his economic successes, both pre-pandemic and post-pandemic, and, frankly, the public agrees with him. Mr. Biden’s economic approval rating is hovering around 35 percent; Mr. Trump’s runs at nearly 60 percent.
The subject of Bidenomics wasn’t specifically raised in the NBC interview, but let me fill in some blanks. Recent articles by two former chairmen of the Council of Economic Advisers, Kevin Hassett and Tyler Goodspeed, and by the Heritage Foundation’s E.J. Antoni all make important points about the absolute failure and the untruths regarding Bidenomics.
Mr. Biden brags about manufacturing, where actual production on a year-over-year basis has dropped five consecutive months, plus the ISM manufacturing survey has been under 50 for 10 straight months — a clear future recession.
Real wages have declined nearly 3 percent during the Biden presidency. They rose by 7 percent under Mr. Trump. With the latest CPI report, the level of inflation has gone up nearly 17 percent — groceries 20 percent, energy 38 percent, gasoline 52 percent.
Mr. Biden keeps bragging that he’s cutting the budget deficit by $1.7 trillion — which is his infamous Bottomless Pinocchio — and for fiscal year ’23, which ends this month, the deficit is expected to exceed $2 trillion. Go figure.
Mr. Biden keeps blaming Mr. Trump’s tax cuts for higher deficits and debt, but, in the NBC interview, the former president does set the record straight by pointing out that tax revenues went up even as tax rates went down under his administration. Sounds like the Laffer curve to me.
Meanwhile, federal spending under Mr. Biden is hovering near 25 percent of GDP, compared to less than 21 percent pre-pandemic under Mr. Trump. In fact, CBO spending estimates are running roughly $1 trillion above pre-Biden estimates.
Finally, real median household income increased under Mr. Trump pre-pandemic by more than $5,000, while falling $4,000 under Mr. Biden. Poverty data has ratcheted up sharply, to 12.4 percent under Mr. Biden from 7.8 percent under Mr. Trump.
For Black Americans, poverty has gone to more than 17 percent from 11.3 percent. For Native Americans, it’s to 23.2 percent from 12.4 percent. For female-headed households, it’s to 22.6 percent recently under Mr. Biden from 11.7 percent under Mr. Trump pre-pandemic.
No matter how much Mr. Biden denies these factoids, the public knows better. Save America. Please retire Mr. Biden.
From Mr. Kudlow’s broadcast on Fox Business News.