Trump mocks Obama crediting himself for booming economy

S E E D E D   C O N T E N T

President Donald Trump poked fun at former President Barack Obama for claiming that today’s booming economy is his own doing – insisting that it was set in motion years ago during his administration.

While campaigning for Democratic candidates in the upcoming midterm elections, Obama attempted to steal the glory from the Republican Party as it celebrated the newly revealed statistic on Friday that another 261,000 jobs were added to the economy in August – not to mention the announcement earlier this week that 203,000 jobless claims was the lowest since 1969.

Not so fast …

Trump was not willing to let his predecessor claim responsibility for the soaring economy, taking the time on the campaign trail to mock Obama for trying to convince voters that Democrats should take credit for proliferating jobs and diminishing joblessness.

“I think he was trying to take credit for this incredible thing happening to our country,” Trump asserted while campaigning for Sen. Heidi Heitkamp’s (D-N.D.) Republican challenger, according to WND . “I have to say to President Obama, it wasn’t him, and if the Democrats got in with their agenda … instead of having 4.2 [percent GDP growth] up, you have 4.2 down – you’d be in negative numbers.”

Trump trumps Obama on economy …

The president then attempted to put Obama’s actual effect on the economy in proper perspective.

“[Obama oversaw the] weakest recovery in the history of our country, [while the United States is currently experiencing] not a recovery, but a rocket ship,” Trump added.

The business guru-turned president is not alone in his assessment of who should take credit for the booming economy, as 68 business, financial and academic economists answered the question earlier this year in Wall Street Journal survey.

“Happily for President Trump, the pros agree with him,” The Hill reported in a January article titled, “Economists agree: Trump, not Obama, gets credit for the economy.” “A recent survey of economists suggests it is President Trump – and not Obama – who should be taking a bow.”

In fact, the overwhelming majority of economic experts attributed virtually every economic upturn to Trump, as opposed to his Democratic predecessor.

“A majority said the president had been ‘somewhat’ or ‘strongly’ positive for job creation, gross domestic product growth and the rising stock market,” The Hill ’s Liz Peek pointed out in her op-ed. “The pros cite the White House’s push for lighter regulation and the recent tax bill as critical to a pro-growth environment – more than 90 percent of the group thought the tax bill would boost GDP expansion over the next two years.”

A comparison of the economy over years past from the annual survey demonstrates that overall, Trump has had a more positive influence on the economy.

“A year ago in the same survey, economists awarded President Obama mixed grades,” Peek recounted. “Most saw his policies as positive for financial stability, but neutral-to-negative for GDP growth and negative for long-term growth. By contrast, Trump was seen as neutral to positive for long-term gains.”

Numbers don’t lie

Recent government reports verify that Trump must be doing something right to set major records during his economic watch.

“The Labor Department announced Friday that wages climbed in August by the most since the recession ended in 2009, and hiring rose by more than forecast, with an additional 201,000 nonfarm payrolls,” WND’s Art Moore informed. “The unemployment rate [is] holding steady at 3.9 percent, [and] average hourly earnings for private workers increased 2.9 percent from a year earlier – exceeding all estimates in a Bloomberg survey.”

Besides getting America back to work, Trump has also boosted the confidence of most Americans regarding the direction of the economy.

“On New Year’s Day of 2018, the New York Times described a ‘wave of optimism’ sweeping over Americans business leaders, saying it is ‘beginning to translate into the sort of investment in new plants, equipment and factory upgrades that bolsters economic growth, spurs job creation – and may finally raise wages significantly,” Moore noted.

Calling Obama out …

After Obama made his speech discounting Republicans’ role in boosting the economy, Republican National Committee (RNC) Spokeswoman Ellie Hockenbury argued that America’s verdict on the Obama economy was rendered in the 2016 presidential election.

“Just hours after a new report showed job growth yet again exceeding expectations, President Obama stepped back into the spotlight to make the case that our country is on the wrong track,” Hockenbury declared, according to WND. “2016 is over, but President Obama is still dismissing the millions of voters across the country who rejected a continuation of his policies in favor of President Trump’s plan for historic tax cuts, new jobs and economic growth. Democrats may have a new resistor-in-chief on the campaign trail, but they’ll need more than a message of resist and obstruct to win this November.”

Still looking for kudos …

While accepting an “Ethics in Government” award from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign on Friday, Obama seized the opportunity to claim responsibility for the upsurge in America’s economy.

“[I stepped in to turn things around after the] reckless behavior of financial elites triggered a massive financial crisis – 10 years ago this week – a crisis that resulted in the worst recession in any of our lifetimes and caused years of hardship for the American people, for many of your parents, for many of your families,” Obama orated, according to WND, recalling that America lost 800,000 jobs every month while millions were losing their homes. “[By the time I left office in January 2017], the household income was near its all-time high, and the uninsured rate had hit an all-time low, and wages were rising, and poverty rates were falling.”

Obama then made it clear that he was taking credit for setting in motion the record-setting economy under his successor.

“I mention all this just so when you hear how great the economy’s doing right now, let’s just remember when this recovery started,” the 44th president said, followed by cheers. “I mean, I’m glad it’s continued, but when you hear about this economic miracle that’s been going on, when the job numbers come out, monthly job numbers, suddenly Republicans are saying it’s a miracle. I have to kind of remind them, actually, those job numbers are the same as they were in 2015 and 2016.”

But a comparison of the numbers actually shows that Obama’s economy of yesteryear pales in comparison to Trump’s of today.

“According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, in 2015, 221,417 jobs were added monthly on average for an annual total of 2,657,000. In 2016, it was 176,333 jobs added monthly on average with an annual total of 2,116,000,” Moore noted. “Under Obama, annual GDP peaked at 2.9 percent in 2015, [but] while 2018 is still under way – in the second quarter, under Trump – it reached 4.2 percent.”

Fox Business Network Contributor Charles Payne contended that the economy under the Obama administration was artificially propped up by the Federal Reserve printing $4.5 trillion and increasing interest rates only one time.

“The Federal Reserve pumped so much money into this economy, you’ve got to put an asterisk on what President Trump has done,” Payne told Fox News’ Your World with Neil Cavuto.

Kudos to Trump

In the face of Obama taking credit where credit was reportedly not due, John Hinderaker – a Powerline blogger and attorney – went before the Joint Economic Committee Thursday and commented on how Trump’s Tax Cuts and Jobs Act impacted Minnesota’s economy is a beneficial way.

“Those effects have been magnificently positive – as they have been on the national economy – demonstrating a sharp rise in job creation and wage growth in his state,” Hinderaker explained on his blog . “The progress the U.S. economy has made since Donald Trump took the helm from the hapless Barack Obama is an ongoing rebuke to the Democrats anti-growth policies.”

He went on to argue that there is no way a Democratic Congress would have ever passed the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act – insisting that not one Democrat voted for the legislation … and contending that former Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton would have never signed the act if she were in the Oval Office instead of Trump.

He went on to explain that Democrats are itching to take control of the House after November’s midterm elections so that they can turn the economy in the opposite direction, once again.

“With the House in Democrat hands, they won’t be able to repeal the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, but they will be able to guarantee that no more pro-growth, pro-worker legislation will be enacted,” Hindraker added. “They will focus on impeaching President Trump instead.”