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Divided We Stand

Divided We Stand
New book about the 2020 election.

Tuesday, April 30, 2019

Not Feeling the Boom

In Defying the Odds, we discuss the tax issue in the 2016 campaign.  The update  -- just published --includes a chapter on the 2018 midterms. and explains why the Trump tax cut backfired on Republicans.

From Monmouth University:
Few Americans feel they have personally benefited a great deal from the nation’s growing economy, with the wealthy seen as getting a lot more help from President Donald Trump’s policies than either the middle class or the poor. The Monmouth University Poll also finds health care costs continue to top a wide variety of concerns that American families are facing.
Only 12% of Americans say that their family has benefited a great deal from recent growth in the U.S. economy and another 31% say they have received some benefit from the economic upturn. A majority, though, say they have been helped either not much (27%) or not at all (27%) from the nation’s macroeconomic growth. These results are nearly identical to Monmouth polls taken in 2018 as well as just before Trump took office in January 2017. Only 34% of those earning less than $50,000 a year and 42% of those earning between $50,000 and $100,000 say they have benefited at least somewhat from the growing economy. This contrasts with those earning more the $100,000, where a majority (58%) say they have benefited.
Currently, just 18% of Americans say that middle-class families in general have benefited a lot from Trump’s policies so far, 37% say that middle-class families have benefited a little and 36% say they have not benefited at all. These results are similar to a year ago, when 14% said the middle class benefited a lot, 45% a little, and 36% not at all. Public expectations were somewhat more positive shortly before Trump took office in January 2017, when 26% predicted that the middle class would see a lot of benefit from the new president’s policies, 40% said the middle class would see a little, and 29% said the middle class would not see any change in their situation