Annual U.S. economic growth never hit 3 percent under former President Barack Obama, so when economic adviser Stephen Moore recently told President Trump that growth under the Republican could hit 4.5 percent, he expected the president to cheer.
“This is happening faster than we even predicted,” Moore recalled telling Trump during a short meet-and-greet at the president’s Mar-a-Lago golf resort in Florida.
But instead of breaking into a happy dance, Moore said Trump “just smiled and said, ‘You ain’t seen nothing yet.’”
It prompted him to recall that during the 2016 campaign, when he and Larry Kudlow, now Trump’s director of the National Economic Council, drew up a blueprint to reach 4 percent growth, the candidate reacted by saying, “I want 5 percent growth.” Times have not changed, Moore said in an interview.
Shadowed by other major stories and the media’s obsession with issues such as the Russia probe and Stormy Daniels, Trump has been quietly checking off campaign promises, the biggest being the 2017 tax cut, a massive reduction in regulations and energy development.
The result is big growth. The Atlanta Federal Reserve’s GDPNow forecast model predicted 4.8 percent growth in the second quarter, up from 2.2 percent in the first three months of the year.
.@StephenMoore: “As Trump’s Economy Booms, the Left is Running Out of Excuses.” #ampFW https://t.co/xbkyh2CT1Y
— FreedomWorks (@FreedomWorks) June 17, 2018
“The U.S. economy is the fastest-growing economy virtually in the whole world,” said Moore, the distinguished visiting fellow with the Project for Economic Growth at the Heritage Foundation. He predicted that when everything is factored in, second-quarter growth will come in just shy of that. He said, “4.5 percent is very plausible for the second quarter, which is a gigantic number.”
He also predicted that the stock market will continue its bullish ways, ignoring naysayers who say that the shallow but long U.S. recovery is about to fade.
“We really haven’t had a recovery,” said Moore, who added, “The economy isn’t running out of gas, it is just starting to rev up.”
Grover Norquist, president of Americans for Tax Reform, agreed and highlighted the benefits of cutting the corporate tax and regulations.
On the 6th month anniversary of President Trump signing the Republican Tax Cuts and Jobs Act into law:
· 90% of workers have higher take-home pay
· consumer confidence is at an 18-year high
· unemployment is at an 18-year low— Grover Norquist (@GroverNorquist) June 22, 2018
He said that reducing taxes to 21 percent from 35 percent is already prompting companies to return to the U.S. He predicted up to $2 trillion will return because taxes in the U.S. are now lower than in Europe.
Cutting regulations is also an incentive for companies investing in the U.S. “Every time they take a regulation off, it’s like taking a stone off your chest and you can breathe better,” Norquist said.
He and Moore said the economy is also getting supercharged as companies in the U.S. invest, hire more workers and even raise salaries. “It’s a very helpful set of conditions,” Norquist said.
After 7 years of the weakest recovery since the Great Depression, @realDonaldTrump has turned the policy dials from antibusiness to pro-business with an enormously stimulative effect. @Taxeconomist @NTU @Heritage @FreedomWorks @larry_kudlow @GroverNorquist https://t.co/2mBPPiZKeO
— Stephen Moore (@StephenMoore) June 12, 2018
Moore, who noted that polls show 52 percent of voters give Trump credit for the nation’s economic turnaround, isn’t ready to declare victory for Trump or the economy yet. He said one big hurdle is how China and other major trading partners will respond to the president’s trade war.
Still, he’s hopeful. “It’s more likely that China’s going to stand down here and make some meaningful concessions and that’s just more growth,” Moore said.
“If the economy is this strong two years from now, then he’s going to get re-elected with 40 states, there is no doubt about it. But anything can happen,” he said.
