Former President Reagan’s budget director David Stockman told Hill.TV on Friday that the vast majority of what President Trump says about the economy is “baloney,” taking aim specifically at his 2020 budget proposal.
“People ought to recognize that almost everything that Trump is saying about the economy is totally baloney,” Stockman, a frequent Trump critic, told hosts Krystal Ball and Buck Sexton on “Rising.”
“We’re in deep trouble. We’re at the end of a long business cycle that has been very weak, and that he’s proposed a catastrophe of a fiscal plan,” he continued.
Stockman pinpointed Trump’s proposed budget, calling the plan unrealistic.
“When you look at it, it’s an insult to fiscal intelligence, to say nothing of common sense,” he said. “He’s proposing to add $4 trillion to the deficit just in the next four years.”
“I think that is nuts at this late stage in the business cycle. In fact, if you look at it, it will cover month 123 to month 171 of this expansion, which began in June of 2009,” he added. “The reason I dwell on that is there has never been in the history of the United States been a business cycle that lasted more than 119 months, and that was the tech boom of the 1990s.”
Trump’s proposed budget request includes large cuts to domestic spending, including programs like Medicare and Medicaid, while boosting defense spending and requesting $8.6 billion in new funding for a border wall.
The budget is dead on arrival in the Democratic-controlled House, though it sets the stage for another shutdown battle later this year.
Trump regularly touts the state of the economy under his administration, pointing to low unemployment and steady job growth.
— Julia Manchester
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