NEC Director Kevin Hassett: ‘Americans Are a Trillion Dollars Better off Than They Were When President Trump Took Office’

EXCERPT:

HASSETT: “Yeah, you’re exactly right, Larry. And the way I like to look at it is that, you can, you know, correcting for changes in prices, you could look at real consumption when President Trump took office and then real consumption for American households in aggregate. You know, it’s the GDP numbers, what we’re getting now. And the difference is that Americans are consuming a trillion dollars more. They’re — the amount of consumption per household has got up maybe around $5,000 per household. That’s after inflation because of the income boom, the capital spending boom, the fact that people aren’t losing their jobs, all the things that have made the economy great means that affordability crisis, it’s a myth. And sure, they could talk about gasoline. President Trump’s right that it’s going to drop like a rock soon. But the bottom line is, if you adjust for inflation, you adjust for changes in prices, that Americans are a trillion dollars better off than they were when President Trump took office. And so, this whole idea about affordability, the way they’re presenting it is inconsistent with the data.”