Fmr Reagan economist blasts unemployment spike as ‘bad policies’ result, argues Trump’s econ plan could revive growth

Former Reagan economist Art Laffer said Monday on Fox Business that the rise in the unemployment rate is due to “bad policies,” highlighting how former President Donald Trump’s economic plan could bring back growth.

Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell stated last week following the Fed’s announcement to lower its federal funds rate by 0.50% that one of the factors contributing to the rising unemployment rate is the “influx across the borders.” While on “Kudlow,” Laffer pushed back against Powell’s opinion, highlighting the lack of employment growth after Fox host Larry Kudlow pressed him on whether illegal immigration played a role in rising rates.

“Not really, he’s [Powell] logically inconsistent, Larry. I mean, if unemployment went up because of illegal immigrants coming in, wouldn’t employment have gone up as well because they’ve come in — some of them get jobs, some of them don’t in the labor force, but when you look at employment growth, it’s been declining dramatically, Larry, and that’s really the problem,” Laffer said.

“The unemployment rate — and Trump is completely right, by the way, in this. The unemployment rate increases are because of bad policies not because of illegal immigrants,” Laffer continued. “Their tax policies, their spending policies, have led to a decline in the rate of growth of the economy and lessened employment. And that’s really a serious problem.”

Laffer continued to note how Trump’s economic policies like “no tax on tips” and removing taxes from overtime would lead to the expansion of not just jobs, but output, employment, and income as well.

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“And Trump’s policies, by the way, would lead to enormous expansion of employment. I mean, you look at some of these things on the tips — no taxes on tips. You remove taxes from overtime, those are all marginal tax rate reductions that would have an enormous impact on jobs output. Can you imagine how many more service employees you’d find if you didn’t get taxes on tips? Or how [much] overtime work we’d get — how much more we’d get if we didn’t have taxes on overtime work?” Laffer questioned.

“That was their marginal tax cuts that are great. Even the one of getting rid of some of the SALT. I loved the SALT deduction limitation — I did because I’m from Tennessee,” Laffer said. “But if you did get rid of that, that does increase the after-tax rate of return for upper-income workers, and would be an increase in jobs, output, employment, and income.”

In 2017, a $10,000 cap placed on deducting state and local taxes, known as SALT, was passed through the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, which the former president had pushed for as part of the economic growth at the time, according to CBS News. Trump recently announced that he would be seeking to remove the cap placed through the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, with the bill being set to expire on December 31, 2025.

The Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) data shows August unemployment rates had fallen for the first time since March, hitting 4.2% as 142,000 nonfarm payroll jobs were added to the U.S. economy. However, economists had originally anticipated 161,000 nonfarm payroll jobs being added in August.

A recent post-debate poll conducted by ABC News/Ipsos shows Trump leading Harris on the issue by 7 points in who Americans trust more to handle the economy. Trump additionally leads by 10 points over Harris on immigration, with the vice president leading by 9 points on health care and 14 points on abortion, and the two evenly matched on crime and safety.

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