Author: Max Ehrenfreund
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Behind Trump’s ‘prime the pump’ gaffe is a bunch of real news
President Donald Trump birthed a meme in an interview published Thursday morning when he claimed to have coined the phrase “prime the pump.” He didn’t. Journalist William Hard used the phrase – which refers to using government deficit spending to stimulate the economy – 101 years ago in an article in the now-defunct Everybody’s Magazine.…
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Trump’s tax proposal: what it means for the rich, for the world and for you
WASHINGTON – President Donald Trump on Wednesday offered a glimpse into his approach to tax reform, with the White House announcing he wants to reduce rates, especially on corporations and businesses, as well as provide new breaks for working-class households and middle-class parents. But Wednesday’s release contained no legislative text, or even the kind of…
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White House explores two new tax ideas – a value-added tax and carbon tax – as leading proposal to raise revenue falters
President Donald Trump’s administration is exploring the creation of two controversial new taxes – a value-added tax and a carbon tax – as part of a broad overhaul of the tax code, according to an administration official and one other person briefed on the process. Administration officials are aware how politically divisive these ideas are,…
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White House calls for changing, but not scrapping, NAFTA in draft letter
The Trump administration will seek many modest, but numerous, changes to the North American Free Trade Agreement, according to a draft of a letter sent last week to Congress, displaying a much more conventional approach to trade negotiation than the dramatic changes President Donald Trump had suggested he planned to seek. The draft letter, first…
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Trump’s budget chief says Obama fudged jobs data – a claim officials, experts refute
WASHINGTON – Mick Mulvaney, President Donald Trump’s budget director, accused the Obama administration on Sunday of doctoring federal data to minimize the number of Americans out of work. “We’ve thought for a long time, I did, that the Obama administration was manipulating the numbers, in terms of the number of people in the workforce, to…
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Trump may be abandoning conservatives on one of their most symbolic issues
President Donald Trump has committed to supporting a government program that has been a major target of Republican criticism for years, according to two Democrats who met with him Thursday. Trump signaled support for the Export-Import Bank, a small but controversial government agency that subsidizes American exporters, the Democrats say. For years, Republicans in Congress…
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Why Wall Street still isn’t taking Donald Trump seriously
Investors have bid stock prices up to historic highs this week, brushing off escalating threats from President-elect Donald Trump to disrupt global trade. Most analysts agree that a rupture between China and the United States, the world’s two most important economies, could have serious consequences, including a recession. Few on Wall Street, however, believe Trump…
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Republicans won big; now they have big questions to answer
First, though, there is a great deal of work to be done. Bills will have to be written and passed. Lawmakers will have to come up with the money to put Republicans’ often costly plans into practice. Democrats in the Senate could have an opportunity to filibuster some pieces of legislation. Trump and House Speaker…
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Ryan might not be happy about first item in Trump’s victory speech
In a brief victory speech early Wednesday morning, Donald Trump devoted only a few words to his specific priorities for policymaking in the next administration. At the top of the agenda was a new investment in infrastructure. “We are going to fix our inner cities and rebuild our highways, bridges, tunnels, airports, schools, hospitals,” the…
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A massive new study debunks a widespread theory for Donald Trump’s success
Economic distress and anxiety across working-class white America have become a widely discussed explanation for the success of Donald Trump. It seems to make sense. Trump’s most fervent supporters tend to be white men without college degrees. This same group has suffered economically in our increasingly globalized world, as machines have replaced workers in factories…