Friday, September 07, 2018
The White House • September 6, 2018
The latest Trump Economy myth: Wages are stagnant
The Trump Administration’s critics are in a bind: During the 2016 election, many claimed that then-candidate Donald J. Trump’s economic policies wouldn’t work—in fact, that they would likely trigger a major recession. Nearly a year and a half into his term, the results are undeniable.
Nearly 4 million jobs have been created since the election, including 400,000 in manufacturing. New unemployment claims recently hit a 49-year low. Almost 3.9 million Americans have been lifted off food stamps. The economy is on track to hit its highest annual average growth rate in more than 13 years.
Looking for a new talking point, the left found one: Jobs, stocks, and economic growth may be soaring, but pay is not. “Worker wages remain stagnant,” ThinkProgress declared in July.
Except pay isn’t stagnant—not by a longshot. A new report from the Council of Economic Advisers this week explains the origins of that misleading stat. According to the CEA, official wage growth estimates often ignore key parts of the real compensation that workers receive. Among other problems, these measures exclude the value of crucial benefits such as health insurance, taxes, and paid leave.
Real wage compensation has grown by 1.4 percent over the past year, well above inflation growth. CEA’s estimate translates to more than $1,000 of additional income each year for the average American household.
Get the facts: American workers are seeing bigger paychecks
Read the full report: How much are workers really getting paid?
Democrats’ double standard on Judge Kavanaugh
Flash back to June 2010: Solicitor General Elena Kagan appeared before the Democratic-majority Senate for her confirmation hearing to the U.S. Supreme Court. “The Senate did not demand that the Obama administration provide the tens of thousands of pages from Elena Kagan’s tenure as Solicitor General,” Ethics and Public Policy Center President Ed Whelan writes in National Review.
“Never mind that Kagan, in stark contrast to Kavanaugh, had zero judicial experience and that her SG records would have been the materials most probative of her legal thinking,” Whelan continues.
Naturally, Senate Democrats should take the same principled stand for executive privilege when examining records for Judge Brett Kavanaugh. Instead, less than one minute into this week’s confirmation hearing, Democrats began calling to adjourn the session altogether, citing insufficient information about the nominee.
In fact, “the Judiciary Committee has received the most comprehensive set of documents ever provided by a nominee to the Supreme Court, receiving more executive branch documents than the past five Supreme Court nominees combined,” Sen. Thom Tillis (R-NC) wrote yesterday.
“These documents are in addition to the most relevant portion of Kavanaugh’s extensive record; namely, the 307 opinions he authored as a judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit,” Sen. Tillis add