RUSH: So no surprise to those of us in the know. “U.S. Economy Grew at 3.2% Rate in First Quarter,” despite all the media predictions of doom and gloom. And they were rote. And they began last summer. They actually began with the Trump tax cut debates. The Drive-By Media, the Democrat Party, just as they did in 2006, began trying to create a self-fulfilling prophecy of a recession. And the most recent effort began with the Trump tax cut debate.
But we are at 3.2% gross domestic product, economic growth, as I say, after months and months of being told that the sugar high of the Trump tax cuts was gonna wear off quickly and that the economy would never get over 2%. The media found expert after expert after expert, and they all in unison said there was no way, given Trump’s tax cuts, that the economy was gonna grow faster than 2%. And maybe even 1%. Some of them said maybe even 1% because the Trump tax cuts are gonna be such a drag on the economy. Tax cuts a drag on the economy; tax increases boost economic growth. This is what the left would have you believe.
Now, the doom and gloom began last summer. The Democrats went back to their playbook, decided the best way to win the midterms is to try to talk everybody into a recession, which is exactly what they did, as I said in 2006, after they gave up trying to force Bush to surrender in Iraq.
They looked at Iraq as mission accomplished. They pretty much talked everybody into the fact that it was an unjust war and that Bush had lied everybody into it and that we deserved to get our butts kicked. So they pretty much convinced everybody the Iraq war was a disaster and it was a waste of time, they made everybody tired of it. So they switched gears and moved into the economy in 2006 and it’s what I mean about their playbook. They have no innovation. They cannot modernize.
They cannot even bring themselves to current day, just as with the Trump scandals they’re trying to recreate Watergate and John Dean. Now they’re going to back to 2006 and recreating the magic of a false economic recession. They did it in 2008. They did it in 2008 following the financial crisis. They got Barack Obama elected. Of course McCain helped by suspending his campaign.
But as usual, all the economists polled by Reuters and all the other Drive-Bys had forecast a 2% GDP. And, as usual, they were wrong. In fact, they were wrong by nearly 50%. But the Reuters economists like the rest of the Drive-By Media economists are always wrong, and somehow they’re always too pessimistic under Trump just like they were always too optimistic under Barack Hussein O.
Even the Reuters article today on the GDP news says that the increase in growth was driven by temporary factors that are likely to reverse in coming quarters. Never give up hope. Never stop lying when Republicans are in power.
Let’s go to the audio sound bites. This is CNN Newsroom this morning. Co-Host Jim Sciutto and the business correspondent Alison Kosik delivering the breaking news on the economy, which of course is not good for CNN. It is good for their audience, but their audience is too stupid to know it.
SCIUTTO: Breaking news this hour. New signs of a growing and healthy American economy. New numbers released just moments ago show 3.2% growth in the first quarter, smashing the expectations. Joining me now to discuss it, CNN business correspondent, Alison Kosik. Alison, these numbers here are truly remarkable in that the government was shut down for most of the first third of this quarter.
KOSIK: Yes, for about a third of the quarter we saw the government shutdown apparently didn’t have any impact on economic growth.
RUSH: Why would it?
KOSIK: The economic growth showing a 3.2% increase for the first three months.
RUSH: Why would the government shutdown have anything to do with the private sector economy? This is how they think. “Oh, my God. You’re shutting down the government, oh, my God.” The government shutdown was not even a full the government shutdown. It was a partial government shutdown. It was an irrelevant shutdown. It was nothing remarkable whatsoever.
But to these people government is the sun, government is the center of the universe, government is that around which everything revolves. And so you can’t shut down the government, “Oh, my God, we’re gonna starve, oh, my God. We’re gonna, oh, my God. Global warming, oh, my God.”
Shut down the government and they’re out predicting that the economy’s gonna tank? I do not think they realize how ignorant they sound. They genuinely sound shocked that the economy, the private sector, grew when the government was shut down. “Yeah, we saw the government shutdown. Apparently it didn’t have any impact on economic growth.”
Totally clueless. Completely clueless. You know, it would be funny if it weren’t so damaging. Because these people still have a bunch of dunderheads that tune them in. “Oh, Mabel, did you hear that? Why, I was watching CNN, they said that the government shutdown didn’t hurt economy. I don’t understand that.” Sheer idiocy. They’re promoting sheer idiocy. Don’t even understand the precepts and concepts of capitalism.
Oh. Which reminds me. You remember that piece I had last week about the young Millennial woman, it was a great piece, she got all over her generation for thinking they’ve never understood, never known prosperity when they’re living smack-dab in the middle of it?
Well, yet another Millennial woman has come along and is chastising Millennial women for not understanding how capitalism is benefiting them even now, promoting their lives, making their lives easier.
I have to chuckle at some of the examples, such as remote-control power vacuum cleaners. (laughing) Such as washing machines instead of beating your clothes against the rocks on a nearby stream. Well, because it’s sexist. You know, you talk to women about the economic benefits of capitalism, you talk about traditional housewifery stuff, but she doesn’t.
But I mean this is where they want to take us. They want to take us back to walking down by the stream with our little bucket of clothes and beating them on the rocks to clean them as a means of saving the planet. We put together a little montage here. Fake news flashback in December.
Here are the Drive-Bys predicting a recession, and this is December 10th and 11th, 2018, coordinated and timed with the government shutdown.
ALI VELSHI: (newsroom noise) …a recession that people are saying is coming in 2019, probably 2020.
JOHN HARWOOD: The economy is slowing down! We’re looking at continued slowing through 2019, even a possible recession in 2020!
DAVID ROSENBERG: (stock exchange noise) I’m expecting a recession next year.
STEVE LIESMAN: (newsroom noise) …the probability of a recession next year.
WILLIE GEIST: …a possible recession on the way next year.
KATE DAVIDSON: …possible signs of a recession.
NEIL HENNESSY: Everybody’s talking, “Well, there is going to be a recession!”
NEIL CAVUTO: (newsroom noise) …on the cusp of the slowdown, if not outright recession.
CAROLINE HYDE: …hints of a U.S. recession as soon as 2019.
ROMAINE BOSTICK: The chances of a 2019 recession have increased!
LUKE KAWA: U.S. stocks are pricing in a recession.
JONAS MAX FERRIS: Everyone’s, of course, worried about a recession.
RUSH: It’s unbelievable. These things just keep happening. It is a never-ending display of sheer, glittering ignorance on the part of these people — and Neil Cavuto is in this montage. Neil Cavuto said, “Yeah, we’re on the cusp of a slowdown if not outright recession.” Cavuto knows that government shutdowns have nothing to do with the private sector economy. “But, Rush! But, Rush! They do, because the government sends so many checks.” The government’s gonna send checks whether it’s shut down or not.
That’s the whole point. Welfare checks, Social Security checks, you name it. They all go out during a government shutdown. “Yeah, Rush, but the government’s a big percentage player in GDP.” Only because of their borrowing. The government doesn’t produce anything, except military armaments. What’s the government produce? Government doesn’t innovate. Government doesn’t produce… All government does is take wealth and transfer it.
Government doesn’t create a dime’s worth of wealth. (Snort!) How can it? It’s $22 trillion in debt. Wealth creation, the United States government? So here… These people ought to be embarrassed, just like they ought to be embarrassed after their two years of reporting on the so-called collusion between Trump and Russia. They should be embarrassed. They have misled their audience. They have pretended to be experts. They have hired other experts, economic specialists.
They brought them all in and they told everybody going into the Christmas season that we’re headed into a recession — and that we’re headed into a recession for two reasons: The Trump tax cuts are gonna kill the economy and the government shutdown is gonna kill the economy. Note what will kill the economy: Government getting smaller, government having less money, and you having more. You having more money. Tax cut. You having more money is gonna threaten the economy? Do these people telegraph any better the socialist tendencies that they all have?
Here’s the Trumpster this morning at Joint Base Andrews. Somebody asked me, “Rush, why do they call it Joint Base Andrews? It used to be Andrews Air Force Base.” Well, that’s actually a good question. They combined all of the bases — the Andrews Air Force Base and nearby Marine base and nearby Army base — and just call it Joint Base now. I agree, Andrews Air Force Base sounds better than Joint Base Andrews.
Joint Base Andrews? You start thinking about blowing out your knee, the ACL. But it’s Joint Base Andrews. Anyway, Trump was on his way… He just stood up to speak. He’s at Indianapolis, the NRA convention. We’re rolling on this. We’re not gonna JIP it, we’re not gonna carry it live, but we are rolling on it. We’ll have Trump highlights of his speech because he’s on a roll. He’s on a high. He had a great appearance on Hannity last night, and the economy is humming at 3.2%. This is what he said just prior to boarding Air Force One for the trip to Indianapolis…
THE PRESIDENT: There were many people who thought it would be less than 2%, and then we’re at 3.2%. Inflation numbers are very low. The gasoline prices are coming down. I called up OPEC; I said, “You gotta bring ’em down. You gotta bring ’em down,” and gasoline’s coming down. We’re doing great. GDP is an incredible number. But remember this: Not only that, we have a great growth — which is growth. We have great growth, and also very, very low inflation. Our economy is doing great. Number one in the world. We’re number one economy right now in the world, and it’s not even close.
RUSH: “We got great growth. We got the greatest growth in the world. We’ve got the greatest growth ever, got the greatest economy ever. I called OPEC; I said, ‘You gotta get the prices down.’ They said, ‘We’ll get the prices down.’ I called OPEC. Gasoline’s coming down.” He’s on a roll. He’s on a high.
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