Joe Scarborough Slams Donald Trump For ‘Riding The Obama Wave’ During State Of The Union Address
Joe Scarborough used Wednesday’s edition of MSNBC’s Morning Joe to fact-check many of the economic claims made by President Donald Trump during his State of the Union address on Tuesday. In particular, Scarborough slammed Trump for taking credit for the economy he purportedly inherited from former President Barack Obama, Newsweek reports.
“It’s just absolutely preposterous that Donald Trump suggests that had he not turned things around from Barack Obama this economy would be in terrible shape, when he’s riding the Obama wave,” Scarborough said.
He claimed that the recovery time from the global financial crisis Obama inherited is 11 years and pointed to the fact that Obama created more jobs over his last three years in office than Trump did in his first three years.
Scarborough also referenced data showing that GDP growth has been an average of 2.5 percent under Trump, which is allegedly low compared to many of his recent predecessors. He noted that the average was 3.2 percent under Jimmy Carter and 3.8 percent under Bill Clinton.
Newsweek claims that economists generally tie the significant decrease in unemployment under Trump to the period of economic recovery kick-started by the Obama administration.
Obama’s former speechwriter, Cody Keenan, addressed Trump’s speech on MSNBC’s 11th Hour. Keenan said the first 10 minutes of the president’s speech made a good case for Obama’s economy and expressed his belief that Obama’s presidency paved the way for the foundation of the modern economy.
“I think he sees that as a way to turn out his base, along with what I think was actually a really good case for Barack Obama’s economy in the first 10 minutes,” he said, per Newsweek.
Keenan also made similar comments on Twitter in response to Trump’s speech.
“Almost every single economic statistic Trump bragged about tonight is one that started under Barack Obama,” he wrote.
Yeah, can really tell where Trump turned the economy around pic.twitter.com/0cI58Wk4FA
— Pat Bagley (@Patbagley) February 5, 2020
Many have disputed the effectiveness of Trump’s approach to the economy. In particular, one of Trump’s signature policies, the Tax Cut and Jobs Act (TCJA), has reportedly failed to deliver on its promises. As The Inquisitr reported, the nonpartisan Tax Policy Center found that more than 60 percent of the savings went to the wealthiest 20 percent. The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office also reported that the cuts would cause the federal debt to increase by $2 trillion over 11 years.
In addition, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell’s claim that the tax cut would permanently boost U.S. economic growth has failed to come to fruition. As of December, economic growth was reportedly the same as it was in 2015.
