Funny how this works out, but now it will be Trump’s turn to make the economy look better than it actually is.
The economy is growing at a 2.4 percent annual rate, according to the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta. That’s only slightly better than the anemic growth of 1.9 percent in the last quarter of 2016.
And growth for all four quarters of 2016 was just 1.6 percent, which is pathetic and a big reason the Democrats lost the last election.
Ordinarily, this would be great news for a new president — low bar to hurdle, low expectations.
But there’s something else afoot right now.
Trump has promised a “phenomenal” tax reform plan, which he says will be unveiled very shortly. And I have no doubt the plan will be eye- popping.
The problem is, no tax reform of any sort will pass even a Republican-controlled Congress if it makes the nation’s deficit explode.
And Trump’s plan, no matter what it consists of, will do just that unless there is a boost in revenue to the US Treasury.
And the only way revenue can look as though it’s soaring is if Trump’s financial advisers make outrageously optimistic assumptions about the future of the US economy, which has been crawling along at subpar growth for more than a decade.
Making the situation even more complicated is that Trump wants to cut taxes and boost government spending on infrastructure projects simultaneously.
Like tax reform, infrastructure replacement is a worthy cause. But like Trump’s “phenomenal” plan on taxes, rebuilding America will spike US government debt — to more than $20 trillion any day now.
My best guess is that very little gets done on taxes or infrastructure.
I’m going to let the Trump administration spin its wheels for a few months before I attempt to present the president with the only logical plan to improve the economy.
My strategy, in short, calls for changing the way people can use money they have stashed in retirement plans. If enacted, my plan will see the US economy get a $1 trillion boost.
And my plan won’t cause the federal deficit to explode. Plus it will slow down the expansion of Washington’s debt.
I’ve written about my plan many times before. And since Trump reads this column, I’m sure he is already familiar with the basics.