More than 300 leading economists recently called for the rejection of Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton’s economic agenda. A statement by these leading academic economists “cited an underperforming US economy as vulnerable to stagnation under Clinton’s outdated policy prescriptions” — which could impact both homeland and national defense spending.
“If you look at Clinton’s promises for more debt-financed programs, higher taxes on investments and families, and a continued regulatory assault, it’s clear these ideas would be harmful to US growth,” said former Office of Management and Budget Director James Miller III. “It’s a promise for more of the same harmful policies that have stifled US growth since the recession.”
“In an economy with millions of Americans having dropped out of the workforce, a $12 an hour federal minimum wage and stalling development of American energy are job-killing ideas,” said prominent national economist Larry Kudlow. “The right prescription is limited but effective government, restrained spending and sound money.”
Meanwhile Clinton often cites a single Moody’s Analytics analysis which concluded Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump’s presidency would “significantly” weaken the country, driving the US into a “lengthy recession” with nearly 3.5 million job losses and a 7 percent unemployment rate. The report she cites was overseen by Mark Zandi, chief economist of Moody’s Analytics where he directs economic research. He’s also a major Democratic donor, including to Clinton, and a surrogate for her. OpenSecrets.org indicated he’s donated over $20,000 to other campaigns during the past decade, almost all of it to Democrats.
Trump policy advisor and economics professor at the University of California-Irvine, Peter Navarro, rejected the Moody’s analysis.
"In Moody’s world, ‘stronger foreign immigration’ pushes up productivity but doesn’t push down wages, the ‘negative employment affect [sic]’ for a higher minimum wage is ‘modest’ tax hikes do not reduce the spending of higher income individuals, and [Clinton’s] plan will result in only a ‘modest increase in the federal government’s budget deficits.’ No reputable economist would sign on to these fantasies," Navarro said in a statement.
Despite his Moody’s analysis, Zandi told the Washington Post, that “raising taxes on anyone now, when the economic recovery is so fragile, would be a mistake.”
During a speech in St. Petersburg, Fla., on Aug. 8, Clinton referred to Zandi’s research, noting, “One independent expert — actually, the economist who advised John McCain in 2008, so you know, not somebody that has any pre-disposition towards our side.”
On a stump in Kissimmee, Florida, on Aug. 8, Clinton stated, "And one particular economist who looked at [Trump’s] plans, somebody who advised John McCain back in 2008, so you know that, no, he’s not a Democrat. He’s an independent economic analyst, and he basically said if Trump were able to implement what he’s proposing, heaven forbid, it would cost 3.5 million jobs. He would actually reduce jobs. And then to be fair, he looked at what I’m proposing, and he said what I’m proposing would create at least 10 million new jobs in the first four years."
In a speech in Fayetteville, NC, on Aug. 16, Clinton’s running mate, Tim Kaine (D-MN) said Moody’s is “the best economic analysis firm in the country,” adding, “They’re not Democrats. The chief economist, Mark Zandi, was John McCain’s head economist in 2008.”
However, in an email to FactCheck.org. on Aug. 10, Zandi said, "Yes, I was an economic advisor to the 2008 McCain campaign for President, [but] Doug Holtz-Eakin was his principal economic advisor. I provided daily reports on economic and financial market conditions, and I also provided policy advice on how to respond to the developing financial crisis. Yes, I’m a registered Democrat and I contributed $2,700 to the Clinton campaign during the Democratic primary. I have contributed in the past to Democrats and Republicans."
The 300 economists’ statement discusses the policies needed to achieve an economic growth rate of three to four percent, and “affirmed Clinton’s promises would stifle economic growth at nearly half that.” The economists, representing academic institutions and think tanks from across the country, also correlated lower economic growth with a freeze in the national standard of living.
“With the economy growing at only one percent for the last year, this is the worst possible time to be talking about raising taxes on businesses and investors,” said economist and former Wall Street Journal editorial board member Steve Moore. “Hillary Clinton’s agenda of taxes and more debt spending could turn a soft recession into a real recession in 2017.”
“For these reasons and more,” the economists stated, “the undersigned urge everyone concerned about threats to American prosperity to reject Hillary Clinton’s ill-advised economic agenda.”
Trump’s economic agenda would:
- Work with Congress to fully repeal the defense sequester and submit a new budget to rebuild our depleted military.Increase the size of the US Army to 540,000 active duty soldiers, which the Army Chief of Staff says he needs to execute current missions.
- Rebuild the US Navy toward a goal of 350 ships, as the bipartisan National Defense Panel has recommended.
- Provide the US Air Force with the 1,200 fighter aircraft they need.Grow the US Marine Corps to 36 battalions.
- Invest in a serious missile defense system to meet growing threats by modernizing our Navy’s cruisers and procuring additional, modern destroyers to counter the ballistic missile threat from Iran and North Korea.Emphasize cyber warfare and require a comprehensive review from the Joint Chiefs of Staff and all relevant federal agencies to identify our cyber vulnerabilities and to protect all vital infrastructure and to create a state-of-the-art cyber defense and offense.
- Pay for this necessary rebuilding of our national defense by conducting a full audit of the Pentagon, eliminating incorrect payments, reducing duplicative bureaucracy, collecting unpaid taxes, and ending unwanted and unauthorized federal programs.
The full text of the 300 economists’ statement follows:
Statement by Economists Concerned by Hillary Clinton’s Economic Agenda
The outcome of this year’s presidential election will influence the US economy for years to come. Should Hillary Clinton win that election, her outdated policy prescriptions won’t return our economy to the faster growth rates it once enjoyed. And without more economic growth, her agenda won’t result in more jobs or a higher national standard of living. Hillary Clinton’s economic agenda is wrong for America.
The US economy is underperforming. Misguided federal policies have produced one of the slowest recoveries on record. Since early 2009, the economy has grown at an average annual rate of 2 percent. It could and should be growing 3 to 4 percent.
Hillary Clinton promises to repeat almost all of Obama’s policy mistakes. She wants yet another massive debt-financed public works program; she wants to raise tax rates on investment and incomes to nearly 50 percent; she wants to raise the federal minimum wage to at least $12 an hour and supports state and local efforts to hike theirs; she wants to stall America’s development of fossil fuels; she wants to continue the Obama administration’s regulatory assault on business and entrepreneurship; and she wants to double down on ObamaCare.
What America needs, and what Americans deserve, is an agenda of economic freedom: limited but effective government, policies that rely on and strengthen markets, pro-growth tax reform, sensible federal spending restraint, regulatory relief, sound money and freedom to trade. These things are necessary if we are to revive American prosperity.
For these reasons and more, the undersigned urge everyone concerned about threats to American prosperity to reject Hillary Clinton’s ill-advised economic agenda.
Signed (affiliations listed for identification purposes only):
Burton A. Abrams, University of Delaware
Zoltan Acs, George Mason University
Douglas Adie, Ohio University
Lee C. Adkins, Oklahoma State University
Richard Agnello, University of Delaware
William Albrecht, University of Iowa
Gordon Alexander, University of Minnesota
John W. Allen, Texas A&M University
William Allen, University of California, Los Angeles
Dom Armentano, University of Hartford
Nathan Ashby, University of Texas at El Paso
Howard Baetjer, Towson University Department of Economics
Charles Baird, California State University, East Bay
Marjorie Baldwin, Arizona State University
Ray Ball, University of Chicago
Christopher C. Barnekov, Ph.D., Fort Wayne, Indiana
Bill Barnett, Loyola University New Orleans
James Barth, Auburn University
Robert Battalio, University of Notre Dame
Stacie Beck, University of Delaware
Daniel K. Benjamin, Clemson University
James T. Bennett, George Mason University
Michael Bennett, Curry College
Bill Beranek, University of Georgia
Dianne Betts, Raymond James & Associates
Sanjai Bhagat, University of Colorado
Michael Bond, University of Arizona
Michael J. Boskin, Stanford University
Samuel Bostaph, University of Dallas
Fred Bounds, Georgia State University
John Boyd, University of Minnesota
Michael Bradley, Duke University
Charles Breeden, Marquette University
Wayne Brough, FreedomWorks
Lawrence Brunner, Central Michigan University
Phillip Bryson, Brigham Young University
Van Bullock, New Mexico State University
Richard Burkhauser, Cornell University
David Burnett, Whitworth University and Gonzaga University
Edwin T. Burton, University of Virginia
William Butos, Trinity College
Charles Calomiris, Columbia University
Oral Capps Jr., Texas A&M University
Tom Cargill, University of Nevada
Carmen Carro, AEA Member
James Carter, former Chief Economist, US Senate Budget Committee
Ava Gail Cas, The Catholic University of America
Richard J. Cebula, Jacksonville University
Dustin Chambers, Salisbury University
Don Chance, Louisiana State University
Semoon Chang, Gulf Coast Center for Impact Studies
K. C. Chen, California State University, Fresno
Gregory C. Chow, Princeton University
Susan Christoffersen, Philadelphia University
Lawrence Cima, John Carroll University
Lloyd Cohen, George Mason University Scalia Law School
John Coleman, Duke University
Ben Collier, Northwest Missouri State University
Boyd Collier, Tarleton State University
Robert Collinge, University of Texas at San Antonio
Michael Cosgrove, University of Dallas
T. Norman Van Cott, Ball State University, Muncie, Indiana
James Cover, University of Alabama
Eleanor Craig, University of Delaware
W. Mark Crain, Lafayette College
Nicole Crain, Lafayette College
John R. Crooker, University of Central Missouri
K. Cundiff, Park University
Ward Curran, Trinity College
Carl Dahlman, US Department of Defense and RAND Corporation, retired
Michael Daniels, Columbus State University
Larry Dann, University of Oregon
Lawrence S. Davidson, Indiana University
Joseph DeSalvo, University of South Florida, Tampa
Allan DeSerpa, Arizona State University
Bob DeYoung, University of Kansas School of Business
Gregg Dimkoff , Grand Valley State University
Floyd H. Duncan, Virginia Military Institute
James Dunlevy, Miami University
Gerald Dwyer, Dwyer Economics
John Eckalbar, California State University, Chico
John Egger, Towson University
Jeffrey Eisenach, George Mason University Scalia Law School
Richard Ericson, East Carolina University
Molly Espey, Clemson University
Mel Evans, Hopkinsville Community College
Dorla Evans, University of Alabama, Huntsville
Eugene Fama, University of Chicago
W. Ken Farr, Georgia College and State University
Michael Faulkender, University of Maryland
Susan Feigenbaum, University of Missouri, St. Louis
Garry Fleming, Roanoke College
Christopher Flinn, New York University
Harold Flint, Montclair State University, retired
Ralph Frasca, University of Dayton
Gary French, Nathan Associates Inc.
Diana Furchtgott-Roth, Manhattan Institute for Policy Research
Dave Garthoff, The University of Akron
Robert Genetski, Classicalprinciples.com
Moheb Ghali, Western Washington University
Joseph Giacalone, St. John’s University
Adam Gifford Jr., California State University
David Gillette, Truman State University
Otis W. Gilley, Louisiana Tech University
William Glade, University of Texas at Austin
Rodolfo A. Gonzalez, San Jose State University
Lawrence Goodman, Bergen County, NJ
Daniel Graham, Duke University
J. Edward Graham, University of North Carolina, Wilmington
Phil Gramm, former US Senator, Texas
Wendy Gramm, Mercatus Center, retired
Richard Grant, Lipscomb University
Anthony Greco, University of Louisiana, Lafayette
Kenneth Greene, Binghamton University
Thomas Gresik, University of Notre Dame
Earl Grinols, Baylor University
Noreen Haas-Lephardt,Marquette University
R. W. Hafer, Southern Illinois University Edwardsville
Simon Hakim, Temple University
Thomas Hall, Miami University
Gerald A. Hanweck, George Mason University
Stephen Happel, Arizona State University
Scott Harrington, University of Pennsylvania
Lydia Harris, Goucher College
William R. Hart, Miami University
Joseph Haslag, University of Missouri
John Haslem, University of Maryland
Janice A. Hauge, University of North Texas
Arthur Havenner, University of California, Davis
Daniel Heath, Georgetown University Law Center
Scott Hein, Texas Tech University
John Helmuth, University of Michigan, Flint
James Henderson, Baylor University
Jesse Hill, Tarrant County College
John Hoehn, Michigan State University
Gregory Hoelscher, Blue Stripe Investors, LLC
Arlene Holen, former Associate Director, Congressional Budget Office
Douglas Holtz-Eakin, former Director, Congressional Budget Office
Charles L. Hooper, Objective Insights, Inc.
William Hosek, California State University, Northridge
Forrest Huffman, Temple University
Ed Ireland, Texas Christian University
Thomas R. Ireland, University of Missouri at St. Louis
Austin Jaffe, Pennsylvania State University
Mark Jamison, University of Florida
Shane Johnson, Texas A&M University
Dennis Johnson, University of South Dakota
Richard Just, University of Maryland
Alexander Katkov, Johnson & Wales University
Michael S. Kaylen, University of Missouri
Barry Keating, University of Notre Dame
David Kendall, University of Virginia
Richard Kilmer, University of Florida
Charles Knoeber, North Carolina State University
Don Koch, former Senior Vice President, Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta
Larry Kudlow
Arthur B. Laffer, Laffer Associates
William Laird, Florida State University
Deepak Lal, UCLA
Nicholas Lash, Loyola University Chicago
Don Leet, California State University, Fresno
Norman Lefton, Southern Illinois University, Edwardsville
Kenneth Lehn, University of Pittsburgh
Jim Leiby, University of Maine
David Leonard, Miami University of Ohio
Stan Liebowitz, University of Texas, Dallas
Dean R. Lillard, Ohio State University
Christopher Lingle, Ph.D. in economics, University of Georgia
Jody Lipford, Presbyterian College
Luis Locay, University of Miami
Dennis E. Logue, Tuck School at Dartmouth College
John R. Lott Jr., Crime Prevention Research Center
Timothy Loughran, University of Notre Dame
Donald L. Luskin, TrendMacro
R. Ashley Lyman, University of Idaho
Billy Lynn, St. Ambrose University, Davenport, IA
Glenn MacDonald, Washington University in St. Louis
Maurice MacDonald, Kansas State University
Keith Malone, University of North Alabama
David Malpass, Encima Global
Yuri Maltsev, Carthage College
Michael L. Marlow, Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo
Noralyn Marshall, Risk Management Advisors
Paul Mason, McMurry University
Timothy Mathews, Kennesaw State University
John Matsusaka, University of Southern California
Thomas Mayor, University of Houston
John McArthur, Wofford College
W. Douglas McMillin, Louisiana State University
William L. Megginson, University of Oklahoma
Roger Meiners, University of Texas at Arlington
John Merrifield, University of Texas, San Antonio
Steven C. Michael, University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign
J. Edgar Mihelic, Community Support Services
James Miller III, former Director, Office of Management and Budget
James D. Miller, Smith College
Chandra Mishra, Florida Atlantic University
Ron Moomaw, Oklahoma State University
Steve Moore, FreedomWorks
John C. Moorhouse, Wake Forest University
Barry Morris, University of North Alabama
Frank Murray, University of Minnesota
Robert J. Newman, Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge
Lilian Ng, Schulich School of Business, York University
Robert D. Niehaus, Robert D. Niehaus, Inc.
Edd Noell, Westmont College
David J. Nye, University of Florida
Jim O’Neill, University of Delaware
June O’Neill, former Director, Congressional Budget Office
Lydia Ortega, San Jose State University
Dale Osborne, University of Texas
Donald Oswald, California State University, Bakersfield
Walton Padelford, Union University
Richard Palfin, Economic Analysis
Charles Parekh, Duff & Phelps
Stephen Parente, University of Minnesota
Randall Parker, East Carolina University
Douglas Patterson, Virginia Tech
Judd Patton, Bellevue University
G. Michael Phillips, California State University, Northridge
Ivan Pongracic, Hillsdale College
Arturo Porzecanski, American University
Barry Poulson, University of Colorado Boulder
James Prieger, Pepperdine University
R. L. Promboin, University of Maryland University College
Gary Quinlivan, Saint Vincent College
Richard W. Rahn, Institute for Global Economic Growth
David Ranson, H. C. Wainwright & Co. Economics Inc.
Eric Rasmusen, Indiana University
James Refalo, California State University,Los Angeles
Jon Reisman, University of Maine at Machias
Mark William Rider, Georgia State University
Christine Ries, Georgia Institute of Technology
Mario Rizzo, New York University
Nancy Roberts, Arizona State University
M. Christopher Roebuck, RxEconomics LLC
Philip Romero, University of Oregon
Steven S. Rosefielde, UNC, Chapel Hill
Larry Ross, University of Alaska Anchorage
Timothy Roth, University of Texas at El Paso
Jack Rowe, University of South Florida
Paul Rubin, Emory University
Roy J. Ruffin, University of Houston
Tony Rufolo, Portland State University
John Ruggiero, University of Dayton
Philip Jay Rushing, University of Illinois
Don Sabbarese, Kennesaw State University
Joseph Salerno, Pace University
Anthony Sanders, George Mason University
Jonathan Sandy, University of San Diego
Robert Sauer, University of Bristol
Thomas Saving, Texas A&M University
Paul Schultz, University of Notre Dame
John Seater, North Carolina State University
Barry Seldon, Florida State University
Sherrill Shaffer, University of Wyoming
Dennis Sheehan, Penn State University, Smeal College of Business
Judy Shelton, Atlas Economic Research Foundation
Ann Sherman, DePaul University
Stephen Shmanske, California State University, East Bay
Don Siegel, University at Albany, SUNY
Evangelos Otto Simos, University of New Hampshire
Timothy F. Slaper, Indiana Business Research Center
Richard L. Smith, University of California, Riverside
Ted Snyder, Yale School of Management
Donald Snyder, Utah State University
Lawrence Southwick, University at Buffalo
Frank Spreng, McKendree University
Brad Stamm, Cornerstone University
Robert Stauffer, Roanoke College
Thomas Stoker, MIT
Bernell Stone, Brigham Young University
Joe Stone, University of Oregon
Michael Sullivan, University of Nevada, Las Vegas
Richard Sweeney, Georgetown University
Robert Tamura, Clemson University
T. Craig Tapley, University of Florida
Jason Taylor, Central Michigan University
Timothy Terrell, Wofford College
Rebecca Thacker, Ohio University
Clifford Thies, Shenandoah University
Henry Thompson, Auburn University
David G. Tuerck, Suffolk University
David Tufte, Southern Utah University
Carl J. Ullrich, James Madison University
Richard Vedder, Ohio University
Hrishikesh Vinod, Fordham University
Donald Walker, Indiana University of PA
Sherri Wall, University of Alaska Fairbanks
Alan Rufus Waters, California State University, Fresno
Andrew Weintraub, Temple University
Robert Whaples, Wake Forest University
J. Gregg Whittaker, William Jewell College
Elliott Willman, New Mexico State University
Lonny Wilson, William Penn University
Michael Wohlgenant, North Carolina State University
Arthur Woolf, University of Vermont
Gene Wunder, Washburn University
Sheng Xiao, Westminster College
Bill Yang, Georgia Southern University
Nancy Bord Yonge, Heritage Foundation, Hoover Institution and MicroCapital Institute
Frank Zahn, University of Nebraska at Omaha
Mokhlis Y. Zaki, Northern Michigan University, retired
John Zdanowicz, Florida International University
Jerry Zimmerman, Univeristy of Rochester
Joseph Zoric, Franciscan University of Steubenville
