Another Inflation Gauge Comes in Smoking Hot
TownhallMar 22
The Facts
OVERVIEW: The US is the world's largest economy in nominal GDP and fifth largest by purchasing power parity. In Q1 2024, major economic sectors included real estate, rental, and leasing (13.5%), professional and business services (12.9%), government (11.5%), and manufacturing (10.1%). Fiscal policies, such as taxation and spending plans, are set by the president and his Council of Economic Advisers, the Department of the Treasury, and members of Congress. The Federal Reserve (Fed) manages monetary policies like interest rates and inflation control.
CURRENT STATE — ECONOMIC GROWTH: According to the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), the US economy has seen "robust recovery" since COVID, and is "continuing to expand at a solid pace." It leads the G7 with an 8.6% GDP growth from 2019 Q4 (pre-pandemic) to 2024 Q1. In 2024 Q2, US real GDP grew by a rate of 1.7%, compared to 2.3% and 3.4% in 2024 Q1 and 2023 Q4, respectively. While the OECD forecasts US GDP growth at 2.6% in 2024 and 1.8% in 2025, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) predicts slightly higher rates of 2.7% and 1.9%, respectively, placing the US second to Canada in 2025 (2.3%).
The Spin
Democratic narrative
Having worked alongside Pres. Biden to bring inflation to its lowest rate in three years, Kamala Harris knows exactly how to run the economy should she be elected. As president, Harris would end Trump's corporate tax cuts and actually tax billionaires, boost child care programs, and lower prescription drug costs. No matter how many times Trump calls her a "communist," voters know Harris simply wants to protect and strengthen the country's social safety net.
Republican narrative
Harris has lied for years about the true inflation rate she and Biden caused — estimated at 18% by November 2022 using traditional methods — and now she's whitewashing her record and telling Americans to vote for more of the same. She wants to spend trillions to kill the oil industry and tens of billions on public housing, and that's just a start. Her ideas are so bad that she's now copying Trump's proposals, such as no taxes on tips, but her record on boosting the IRS proves that's also a lie.
Narrative C
While Trump and Harris argue over who's going to print more money to maintain the status quo, RFK Jr. would rather not increase the debt nor raise taxes, but instead take the hundreds of billions of dollars given to the war machine every year and use it to fund college education and social security. He would also prevent corporations from out-bidding young people who want to buy a home, as well as abolish the billion-dollar subsidies for energy corporations to help stimulate smaller green energy companies. America has plenty of money, and RFK Jr. knows how to spend it properly.