The Trump administration brands its economic plan: 'MAGAnomics'

pulse

July 13, 2017 2:51 PM

The White House budget director rolled out "MAGAnomics" in an op-ed article Thursday. It looks similar to President Donald Trump's old economic plan.

Donald Trump.

Get ready for "MAGAnomics."

That's the new name for President Donald Trump's economic agenda, rolled out in a Wall Street Journal op-ed article by Mick Mulvaney, the director of the Office of Management and Budget, on Thursday.

MAGA, of course, is the acronym for sTrump's campaign slogan, "Make America Great Again."

The specifics Mulvaney laid out look pretty similar to the plan Trump has advocated on the campaign trail and during the early part of his presidency.

The use of the "-nomics" suffix bears resemblance to past economic branding attempts like Ronald Reagan's "Reaganomics" package from the 1980s. In fact, Mulvaney's article mentioned Reagan several times.

The core of the plan, Mulvaney wrote, is to get the US back to 3% economic growth, a level much higher than most economists believe is possible over the next few years. Mulvaney took issue with this assumption.

"For merely suggesting that we can get back to that level, the administration has been criticized as unrealistic," Mulvaney wrote. "That's fine with us. We heard the same pessimism 40 years ago, when the country was mired in 'stagflation' and 'malaise.' But Ronald Reagan dared to challenge that thinking and steered us to a boom that many people thought unachievable."

The way to get there, Mulvaney said, follows common Republican themes including cutting taxes, rolling back regulation, and carrying out welfare reform, new trade deals, and infrastructure investment.

Who will MAGAnomics help exactly? Here's how Mulvaney explains it:

"MAGAnomics is for everyone, but especially for those who left for work this morning in the dark but came home after their kids were asleep. It's for those who are working part-time but praying for a full-time job. It's for folks whose savings are as exhausted as they are. This president hears you. He knows America's greatness doesn't spring from higher taxes or unnecessary regulations or broken welfare programs. It doesn't come from government at all. It comes from you."

As it stands, MAGAnomics has mostly picked up where Trump's predecessor left off. Jobs are growing at a similar pace as they were under the Obama administration, wage growth is still restrained, gross domestic product looks to be growing by about 2.6% for the second quarter, according to the Atlanta Fed's GDPNow tracker, and most economic data is on track with most of the postrecession period.

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