Rep. Byron Donalds (R-FL) slammed former President Barack Obama over the weekend for his recent claim that he left former President Donald Trump an amazing economy when he left office.
Donalds made the remarks during a Sunday interview on CNN’s “State of the Union” with Dana Bash when asked to respond to Obama’s remarks.
“Yes, it was pretty good, because it was my economy,” Obama claimed. “It wasn’t something he did. I spent eight years cleaning up the mess that the Republicans had left me the last time.”
Donalds responded: “I was working in finance during Barack Obama’s administration. Let me tell you, the economy under his last — especially the last five years was growing at about 1 to 1.5 percent per year.”
“I think, at the time, President Obama was saying that this era of large economic growth is something of the past. We’re going to have a more consistent economy,” he said. “In his words, a consistent economy meant one that barely grew.”
“So, when Donald Trump came in, he brought his tax cut policy in, which cut taxes across the board for everybody in our country. Couple the fact that he did cut massive regulations from the Obama administration, and what did we see?” he continued. “Economic growth in the United States went from 1-1.5 percent under Barack Obama to 3-3.5 percent under Donald Trump. Wages adjusted for inflation, like I said, because it’s the truth, increased for every subgroup of Americans in our country.”
“The wealth gap was closing. We were actually booming economically far more than we did under Barack Obama,” he noted. “So that’s a cool statement he made on the stump, but it’s not true.”
Bash was unable to argue with any points that Donalds made.
WATCH:
I was working in finance during Obama.
Obama’s economy grew VERY SLOWLY (under 2%).
Trump’s economy grew at nearly 2X THE PACE, wages adjusted for inflation were up, & the wealth gap was closing.
Why?
Successful tax-cuts.
Successful regulation-cuts.
Successful energy policy. pic.twitter.com/hCt7iago2L— Byron Donalds (@ByronDonalds) October 13, 2024