President Trump and his predecessor got into a Presidents Day spat Monday over who deserved the credit for America’s ongoing economic expansion.
“Eleven years ago today, near the bottom of the worst recession in generations, I signed the Recovery Act, paving the way for more than a decade of economic growth and the longest streak of job creation in American history,” former President Obama tweeted at 10:46 a.m., along with a photo of his John Hancock on the bill.
But the Trump campaign, in a statement to Fox News, countered that the economy was only booming because Trump dismantled many of Obama’s policies.
“President Trump reversed every single failed Obama-era economic policy, and with it, reversed the floundering Obama/Biden economy,” Trump campaign spokeswoman Kayleigh McEnany asserted.
“Obama and Biden orchestrated the worst economic recovery in modern history. By contrast, though, deregulating, lowering taxes, and supporting free-market policies, President Trump has created the hottest economy on record, with unemployment hitting generational lows and all-time lows for African Americans, Hispanics, the disabled, veterans and many other hard-working Americans,” she continued.
“Paychecks are growing at the fastest pace in a decade and twice as fast for low- and middle-income Americans. It’s no wonder Democrats seek to take credit for the Trump economy after eight years of betraying blue-collar workers and inflicting pain upon the middle class as Americans everywhere suffered. But the failed days of Democrat stagnation are over, and the soaring Trump economy is here to stay.”
The $787 billion American Recovery and Reinvestment Act was signed in February 2009 — about 14 months after the recession began in December 2007 and about eight months before the national unemployment rate peaked at 10 percent in October 2009, Fox reported.
Obama officials credit the spending package with helping set the economy back on track following the Great Recession.
Under Obama, the unemployment rate steadily fell after reaching a high of 10 percent early in his first term.
It has continued to fall under Trump, with the unemployment rate now at its lowest level in the past 50 years.