Nobel Prize economist on Trump's budget: 'You could say its acollection of lies put together'
Nobel Prizer winning economist and former World Bank Chief Economist Joseph Stiglitz, who has studied market inequalities more intensely than Donald Trump has studied his hair follicles, was interviewed by Amy Goodman on Democracy Now! Asked about what he thought of the newly released White House budget, he had this to say.
"It’s like everything else: It’s made up. You could say it’s a collection of lies put together. It doesn’t make any economic sense. I don’t think anybody who’s looked at it has—can fathom the economics. I mean, you mentioned one thing, the 3 percent growth rate, which is the largest deviation in estimate relative to the CBO on record. You know, when I was chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers, we wanted to be responsible, and we always were conservative and were very careful, getting the views of everybody, wanted to make sure that our numbers were reasonable. He’s made no pretense to be reasonable.
In fact, what’s striking is, while he assumes that there’s going to be more growth, if you look at the budget, it’s designed to reduce growth. He cuts out support for science, for R&D, which is the basis of productivity growth. He cuts out support for job retraining, so when people leave one job, they can be trained for the next job. He cuts out support for Pell grants, so those who have low income can get the education so they can live up to their potential. All these are things that actually lower economic growth. So I would say this is not a growth budget, this is a no-growth budget."
Stiglitz, never short on words, continues to explain how the “numbers” in the budget are “mind-bending,” and clearly bullshit. To top it off, Stiglitz explains that every single thing Trump and Mulvaney says they’re going to do with this budget is contradicted by what this proposed budget wants to enact.
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2017/5/24/1665670/-Nobel-Prize-economist-on-Trump-s-budget-You-could-say-it-s-a-collection-of-lies-put-together