Fun with Numbers

We interrupt our regularly scheduled Christmas Eve Holiday Fest for this special "Breaking News!" report.

Trump and much of his merry band of cabinet acolytes -- but especially press secretary Karoline Leavitt, relentlessly throughout the day -- have been shouting out the news that the GDP for the Third Quarter was announced yesterday as being up to 4.3%.  A huge number.  And therefore, proof supposedly -- they told us repeatedly all day -- that the economy is spectacular.

The pesky problem is that they're leaving out -- not shockingly -- some extremely important things.

Like that tariffs increased the trade deficit by 23%.  Inflation rose.  Unemployment was up to 4.6%, its highest number in four years, during the pandemic. And (most importantly) the overwhelmingly largest part of the GDP increase was due to massive public spending on increased healthcare costs, not manufacturing.

​And of course, in just eight days, thanks to Trump and the MAGOP-led Congress, those healthcare costs are going to skyrocket.

Additionally, the Royal Bank of Canada released a finding that consumer spending was not driven by the middle and lower classes, nor even the upper class, but rather the wealthiest 10% of Americans.  That group of uber-rich spent around $20.3 trillion this past year, which was almost the exact same amount by all the other 90% of earners combined, $22.5 trillion

An article by Politico added -- "That splurge has been primed by a buoyant stock market, elevated real estate prices and solid wage gains for the wealthy."

In other "Affordability is a con job hoax, and this economy is spectacular" news:

The Trump administration will start seizing pay of defaulted student loan borrowers in January. This will affect five million people, which could increase to 10 million.  (No word yet, though, on whether the Trump administration will be going after unpaid taxes.)

This is part of January's Daily Double -- joining Healthcare costs skyrocketing with up to 100,000 Americans losing their healthcare coverage.

We return you now to our regularly scheduled programming.  Which will begin shortly.