Tuesday Opinion
Today’s Editors’ Choice
- Stephen Moore: Fast Growth, and Lots of It, Is Right Around the Corner
- Rich Lowry: Yes, Hate Speech Is Free Speech
- Tony Perkins: Daleiden Charges: And the Arrest Is History
To view all of today’s opinion, click here.
Opinion in Brief
Stephen Moore: “Every Obama budget forecast that annual growth would reach 3.5 to 4.5 percent. Bullish growth was just around the corner. (Remember Joe Biden’s ‘Recovery Summer’ tour?) Consider how these bullish forecasts squared with reality. In 2009 they said we would get growth up to 4.6 percent. In 2010 they said we would get growth of 4.3 percent. In 2011 they said we would get growth of 4.4 percent. In 2012 they said we would get growth of 4.1 percent. In 2013 they said we would get growth of 3.6 percent. In 2014 they said we would get growth of 3.4 percent. We never got growth above 3 percent under Obama, and the average growth was 2 percent, ending at 1.6 percent. The reality was, on average, about 1.5 percentage points below the projection, which was about an 80 percent overestimate of growth. Maybe we should have just hired the tarot-card readers. Their predictions couldn’t have been any worse. So now the very people who made these preposterous forecasts are telling us 3 percent growth is a fantasy under Trump. Under their model, tax increases create 4 percent growth, but tax cuts can’t get us to 3 percent growth.”