Trump thinks the economy is no longer worth his time. We’ll all pay the price.
You might have noticed that list offered nothing for those looking for work. On that front, the president was content to tweet praise about the new jobs report on Friday before turning back to more substantive issues like vandalism at Graceland. The employment numbers were encouraging, to be sure: 1.4 million jobs added, and an unemployment rate down to 8.4 percent. But as The Post reports, “just over half of the 22 million total jobs lost between February and April have not returned,” and new outbreaks and decreasing government assistance could easily derail the slow recovery. Much hard work lies ahead. Another president might hail Friday’s report yet promise to keep working to improve the economy. This one clearly feels the economy is doing just fine and is no longer worth his time.
On “Fox News Sunday,” Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin confirmed that the president’s staff shares his blithe optimism. “The president and I couldn’t be more pleased with the way the economic plan is working,” Mnuchin told host Bret Baier, at the end of a week when 881,000 Americans filed for jobless benefits.
“We’ve injected $3 trillion into the economy,” Mnuchin continued. “People thought we’d get [to] 25 percent on unemployment. Fortunately, it never came close to that.” In short, the treasury secretary admits that $3 trillion in stimulus avoided an even greater catastrophe. You might think that’d be a good argument for spending another $3 trillion or so to right the economy, but no: As Mnuchin framed it, the sticking point with Democrats is that House Speaker Nancy Pelosi “has refused to sit down and negotiate unless we agree to something like a two and a half trillion dollar deal in advance.”
Instead, Mnuchin argues, “let’s do a more targeted bill now. If we need to do more in 30 days, we’ll continue to do more.” So the Democrats’ ask may be necessary, Mnuchin admits, yet he wants to have that debate later. But why take that risk? We’ve already seen that each round of stimulus negotiations means delays and missed deadlines — whatever “we need to do more in 30 days” won’t get done 30 days from now. More important, time and again this year, those who said “maybe we won’t need more spending” have been proved wrong. Let’s not chance it again.
No doubt Republicans will say Democrats aren’t being reasonable here — in particular that Pelosi needs to compromise more. But Pelosi has already compromised: The Heroes Act that Democrats passed in May is no leftist wish list. As I’ve written before, it falls short of the truly sweeping measures this economic decline demands. But it reckons realistically with the economy’s current shortfalls. Any more acceding to Republicans would simply betray American workers.
In one sense, the GOP’s head-in-the-sand approach on the economy fits the party’s broader strategy as identified by my colleague Dana Milbank: “pretend everything is hunky-dory, and hope people fall for it.” But what makes the White House’s laziness on the economy particularly frustrating is that even Republicans admit that Americans need help. When it comes to the coronavirus, systemic racism, climate change and so many other crises facing the country, the country is divided over whether there is a problem in the first place. But as Mnuchin acknowledges, here both sides agree help is needed. We’re no longer arguing over whether the forest is on fire; we’ve agreed that it is, but one side is worried about using too much water to completely put it out. And this blaze will likely continue so long as indifference reigns in the White House.
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