Tim Walz's lies, manufacturing edition

Tim Walz is lying ... again. This time, Gov. Walz was fact-checked, this time by CNN (miracle of miracles, right?). First Gov. Walz told 'the ladies of the View' that "We know Donald Trump lost more manufacturing jobs than any president in American history. That’s simply factual."

Daniel Dale, CNN's fact-checker, replied "It’s not factual. Facts First: Walz’s claim is false. Official statistics show that significantly more manufacturing jobs were lost during the presidencies of George W. Bush (4.54 million), George H.W. Bush (1.27 million), Dwight D. Eisenhower (1.2 million), Gerald Ford (767,000) and Ronald Reagan (582,000) than during the Trump presidency (178,000). There were also slightly more manufacturing jobs lost under President Barack Obama (195,000) than under Trump, though that was overwhelmingly because Obama inherited a steep recession."

With all due respect to Dale, it's important to recall that President Trump had to deal with the Obama administration's exceptionally high taxes his first year in office. While campaigning last week, Obama said that the reason the Trump economy looked so good was because it was Obama's economy:

President Obama, you didn't build that! The Trump economy featured a massive tax cut for companies moving their manufacturing operations back to the U.S. It was called "repatriation." President Trump, working with House and Senate Republicans, made that a central feature of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act. The Tax Cuts and Jobs Act wasn't signed into law until right before Christmas, 2017. That meant one-third of Trump's pre-COVID time in office was burdened with excessive Obama-era corporate tax rates. Here's what Wikipedia said about corporate taxes before and after:

The corporate tax rate was changed from a tiered tax rate ranging from 15% to as high as 39% depending on taxable income to a flat 21%.

But I digress. Let's review other things that President Obama said about the economy. Here's what he said about drilling our way to cheaper oil prices:

First, President Obama said we need "an-all-of-the-above energy policy" that called on using less oil and natural gas. Trump's plan, which brought gasoline prices down to $1.87/gallon, relied mainly on fracking. That led to cheap gasoline prices and energy independence.

Obama's magic wand speech

Mr. President, you don't need a magic wand. You just need cheaper taxes and a better understanding of how to use leverage against other countries. Again, President Obama, you didn't build that! President Trump built that!

Tim Walz fact-check:

Pre-pandemic, the economy added manufacturing jobs under Trump

As always, it’s important to note that job numbers are affected by numerous global and domestic factors other than who the president is. And the fact that the economy lost manufacturing jobs during Trump’s years in office was overwhelmingly because of the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic in the fourth year. From the beginning of his presidency in January 2017 through February 2020, just before the pandemic crash, the economy added 414,000 manufacturing jobs.

I'll say this about Obama and Walz: one lies and the other swears to it. Keeping Obama, Harris and Walz's (and the Democrats') hands off of the economy is essential. We've endured enough suffering. We need a vibrant economy. We didn't get that from Obama. We didn't get that from Biden. We won't get that from Harris-Walz. Think of them as the Four Stooges when it comes to the economy.