National Economic Council Director Larry Kudlow took exception to Democratic New Jersey Sen. Cory Booker’s claim Sunday that America’s economic recovery belongs to former President Barack Obama.
Booker suggested on CNN’s “State of the Union” that Trump was “taking credit for a recovery that started under Obama.”
Kudlow dismissed that argument. “What Mr. Booker and some others are saying is simply not true factually,” Kudlow told Fox News’ “America’s News HQ.”
Kudlow’s comments came just days after the release of the April jobs report indicating the creation of 263,000 new positions and an unemployment rate that has fallen to 3.6% — the lowest in 50 years. But those figures failed to impress Booker, who claimed the new prosperity was isolated to upper income Americans. (RELATED: Cory Booker Says People Won’t Mind Paying Higher Taxes Because ‘Patriotism’)
“You have people on my block – I’m the only presidential candidate that lives in a low-income inner-city neighborhood. Talk to folks, and they’ll tell you: ‘I have to work two jobs just to try to keep myself in housing. And, by the way, that housing isn’t reflected in any of my family,'” the Democratic presidential candidate told CNN. “Americans are struggling. Their wages are too low … for the last four decades, I don’t think they’ve budged that much … We’ve got to make sure that this is a shared recovery, because, right now, it definitely is not.”
New Jersey Democratic Sen. Cory Booker appears on MSNBC’s “Hardball” to discuss his 2020 presidential candidacy, March 18, 2019. YouTube screen capture.
But Kudlow told Fox, “I’m just gonna use the damn facts on the wage front, [average hourly earnings are] rising 3.2% overall. The bottom [poorest] quarter [of workers], 4.4% increase, the top quarter, 3.5% [increase].” (RELATED: Larry Kudlow Gives Ocasio-Cortez An Econ Lesson: Having Two Jobs Does Not Decrease Unemployment)
“First of all, both are good and a rising tide is lifting all boats,” Kudlow said. “But the point I’m making is, it’s the blue collar people that have the fastest job expansion and it’s the blue collar people that have the best wage growth.”
Kudlow issued an enthusiastic thumbs-up to the economic news on Friday in a White House Instagram video.
National Economic Council Director Larry Kudlow appears in White House Instagram video, May 3, 2019. Fox News screenshot.
“Wow! Low unemployment, high jobs, high wages, big consumer confidence, major productivity and no inflation,” Kudlow said. “It’s totally awesome. We’re killing it on the economy.”
“I don’t know how I had the energy to do that,” Kudlow explained on Sunday. “I just walked out and, I don’t know, man, let her rip. These are blowout numbers. The economy is going great guns and POTUS’ policies, to be perfectly honest, his policies to rebuild this economy have entered us into a tremendous prosperity cycle. And I don’t see any end to it right now.”
