Rep. Dan Goldman is Fighting Back as Trump’s Plans Backfire
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What recent economic data highlights concerns about inflation and unemployment?
The end of last week, the University of Michigan reported the kind of worst data it had on inflation expectations since 1993. In addition, consumer sentiments, the worst since 2022. The big news from this data was not inflation expectations by itself, but also if you look at what people are saying about the jobs market, the expected change in unemployment is the worst. Since the 2008 recession, Donald Trump had his surrogates on at the end of last week. The first clip I'm going to show you, though, is from Howard Lutnick, Trump's Commerce Secretary. And here's what he has to say about the Federal Reserve's prediction of a 2.4% contraction. Let's play that one first, then.
We've seen worries about growth. I know you said you're not expecting a recession, but investors are on edge over the possibility of a recession this year after the Atlanta Federal Reserve said that it's predicting a 2.4 percent contraction in the first quarter. And of course, President Trump would not.
Wait, wait, wait. Say that again. A what?
The Atlanta Federal Reserve.
Contraction. Correct. Correct. First quarter. Right here. Right here. Right now. Right here. Right now. That is ridiculous.
Right here. Right now. I have Democratic Congress member Dan Goldman. What are you what are you what's your reaction to that? What are you hearing from your constituents, Congressman?
Oh, look, everybody's very scared. Not only is everybody scared, the uncertainty, the haphazard way, the whiplash creates a tremendous fear. And so even if the economy itself is actually better than one fears, the uncertainty drives companies to be conservative and either certainly not hire, maybe freeze, spend less money. And so what this whiplash with the tariffs has done is it's not only clearly driven up prices and is going to drive up prices, But it has spooked the American economy because there's no clear strategy here. It is purely Donald Trump's whims and latest gut feeling. And a lot of times just his tough guy routine where he needs to win the battle of wills. And so I think it's got everyone very scared.
And I think that's why the Atlanta Federal Reserve is so noticeably anticipating and predicting that there's going to be a real constriction in the economy. We've seen it in the stock market, but we're going to start seeing it in the unemployment numbers as well.
And his whims and his kind of madness is often directed at the most vulnerable, right? I mean, attacking Social Security Administration, veterans, poor kids, getting rid of the Department of Education. I mean, it seems that this is also very cruelly tailored to attack the people who need help. help the most or the people who have sacrificed the most for our country.
You know, Ben, whatever you want to say about the November election and the outcome and some mythical mandate that Donald Trump claims, the exit polling was very clear that the number one issue on voters' minds was the economy and affordability. And Donald Trump promised to make the cost of living much more affordable for lower and middle class Americans. And what he has done since January 20th is the exact opposite. He not only is making it less affordable, as you just said, inflation is going up, the cost of eggs and groceries are going up, all costs are increasing, but he is also whacking and slashing critical vital services and funding that middle and lower income Americans rely on. And so Elon Musk might think that the federal government is the same thing as Twitter, but the downside to cutting 75% of costs on Twitter is that you have a crappy social media platform. The downside of cutting half of the United States government is that tens of millions of Americans who rely on that funding don't get it. And it's going to harm a lot of people.
It is going to hurt our health care. It is going to hurt our housing. It is going to hurt our food insecurity. I mean, the list goes on and on and on. Seniors, veterans. And then to make matters worse, they're going after Medicaid.
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