has grown by 50% since Trump took office. Skyrocketing health care, housing and education costs amid decades of stagnant wages contribute to the reality that 40 percent of Americans – over 100 million people – cannot afford a $400 emergency. Indeed, pre-pandemic economic growth under Trump was roughly equal to the post-recession average under Obama. Trump Gave Americans a Massive Tax Cut. But now, in a remarkable flip-flop as millions of Americans face economic catastrophe, the national debt is suddenly a looming catastrophe to these Republicans. since. Market indices are shown in real time, except for the DJIA, which is delayed by two minutes. All rights reserved. Oh, and that was before the pandemic. Given his own experience with making deals, Trump should've recognized that move coming a mile away. A WarnerMedia Company. The contents of this site are ©2020 Capitol Hill Publishing Corp., a subsidiary of News Communications, Inc. Two years after his administration passed a massive tax cut for corporations meant to spur economic growth, the verdict is in, and the results are embarrassing. Marik von Rennenkampff served as an analyst with the U.S. Department of State’s Bureau of International Security and Nonproliferation, as well as an Obama administration appointee at the U.S. Department of Defense. But the think tank said when it had to fill in the blanks by making assumptions about Trump's intentions, it chose those that would minimize the benefits to high-income households as well as the plan's potential revenue loss. Linette Lopez . Dow Jones: The Dow Jones branded indices are proprietary to and are calculated, distributed and marketed by DJI Opco, a subsidiary of S&P Dow Jones Indices LLC and have been licensed for use to S&P Opco, LLC and CNN. Few Are Noticing — And That's a Problem for Him . In other words, once corporate CEOs got their sweet, sweet tax cut, they spent just a little on the actual sorts of investments that could boost the economy and then kept the rest to pour into a record number of stock buybacks (we can argue about the value of buybacks another time, but they certainly aren't helping substantially boost GDP growth right now). The Trump tax cuts cost the government even more. The plan did not — by any stretch of the imagination — "pay for itself with growth and reduced deductions," as Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin said it would back in 2017. No one can say President Donald Trump wasn't warned. Trump's campaign never responded to the Tax Policy Center's questions about his proposals. That's about four times higher than the current one.