Trump’s Economy Is a Private-Sector Comeback

The economy is doing better than “experts” predicted, led by a private-sector comeback that accounts for the entire net increase in economic activity this year. This latest news is from the Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA), which estimates that the economy grew at an annualized rate of 3.0 percent in the second quarter.

Critics of President Trump initially panned his economic agenda as inflationary and anti-growth, but have thus far been proven wrong. Many of those same critics are now trying to explain away positive economic news, but the facts tell a different story. Here are three reasons why the economy is in the middle of a private-sector comeback.

First, the Trump administration has managed to put the brakes on government spending. The cumulative change in government purchases was slightly negative in the first half of the year, as measured in the BEA’s estimate for gross domestic product (GDP).

That’s a stark contrast to last year, when the Biden administration oversaw a 3.4-percent increase in government purchases, during which time the entire economy grew by only 2.8 percent. “Growth” was coming disproportionately—and unsustainably—from the unproductive public sector’s debt-fueled spending binge.