Chris Graham: You’re not really voting for Donald Trump because he’s better at the economy

Polls will tell you that Donald Trump voters say they like their guy because they think he’s better on the economy.

Come on, seriously?

Don’t tell me you really think Trump is better on the economy.

Because even looking at his record, like you like to tell those of us who don’t believe you on that to do, no, not true.

The average annual growth in GDP over his four-year term was 2.3 percent, in line with the growth over the eight years of Barack Obama (2.3 percent) and Joe Biden (2.2 percent).

The best economic presidents of the last 40 years are Bill Clinton (4.0 percent average annual GDP growth from 1993-2001) and Ronald Reagan (3.6 percent average annual GDP growth from 1981-1989).

And then, none of our last three presidents was as good at the economy thing as, and you might be surprised to learn this, Jimmy Carter, whose term from 1977-1981 saw 2.8 percent average annual GDP growth.

If your argument is, well, it just feels like it was better under Trump, OK, so, the fact is, real disposable income is up 6 percent from the fourth quarter of 2019, which is a fair baseline for the Trump years, because it was the last full economic quarter before the onset of the COVID pandemic.

In other words, people are making more money now under Biden than they were when the Trump years were at their height.

You can claim to feel that things were better in 2019, and for the duration of the Trump years, all you want, but the numbers just don’t bear you out on that.

And if your argument then shifts to, OK, inflation, you can’t reconcile your supposed dislike of where things stand with respect to inflation with the reality of the tariffs that Trump is touting as the centerpiece of his new economic strategy.

Don’t tell me that you don’t know that tariffs are just a tax on us, not “foreign nations,” which Trump, who supposedly has a degree in economics from Penn, claims them to be.

The cost of the tariff just ends up being tacked onto what we pay at the register for whatever we’re buying.

You think inflation was bad there for a while, that it still is bad?

Tack on another 10 percent, or whatever it would be that Trump would decide makes sense, to what the inflation rate is now, and then see how bad inflation is then.

So, no, just stop it with, I don’t like everything about Trump – the minute-by-minute ranting and raving about this or that perceived slight, the way he insults women, minorities, immigrants, trans kids, but I’m willing to put up with it because he’s just so good with the economy.

I just showed you, that’s not the case.

It’s OK for you to just admit that it’s not the economy, and you actually are OK with the ranting and raving and the constant putting down of people.

I’m not going to judge you for being a bad person.

I’d rather you just be up front about it, honestly.