Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross told Newsmax TV that the economy would be growing at a very healthy clip if it weren’t for the recent string of deadly hurricanes.
“If it weren't for the hurricane, two hurricanes the fact is we would've been over 3 percent this quarter without a lot of the things that we're already doing,” Ross, 79, told Newsmax Finance Insider, economist and moderator Larry Kudlow in a "Newsmax in the Nation's Capital" special sponsored by Newsmax and Google.
“So the notion that we were in some sort of 1.8 percent prison is simply wrong,” Ross said of financial pundits who allege that economic growth is struggling.
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However, last month's survey of nearly four dozen economists by the National Association for Business Economics reportedly found that America’s economic growth won’t break out into the robust 3 percent level predicted by Trump anytime soon.
U.S. economic growth will stay stuck in the low 2 percent range in 2017 and 2018, the NABE survey found, USA Today reported.
"Panelists continue to expect action by Congress and the Trump administration on both tax reform and infrastructure spending before the end of 2018, although the majorities holding these views are smaller than in the June survey," Kevin Swift, vice president-elect of the NABE, said in a statement accompanying the report.
Just last week, the Atlanta Federal Reserve’s GDPNow forecast model showed that the U.S. economy is on track to grow at a 2.5 percent annualized pace in the third quarter, based on the payrolls report for September which showed employment fell for the first time in seven years, Reuters reported.
The latest estimate for third-quarter gross domestic product was slower than the 2.8 percent growth rate calculated late last week, the Atlanta Fed said.
For his part, Ross also said there are other plans in the wings to boost economic growth.
‘Remember, too, after we get the tax (cut), the next program is going to be a big infrastructure program,” he said.
Ross also explained to Kudlow that President Donald Trump’s plan to lower corporate taxes will also eventually benefit middle-class workers.
“Most middle-income wage earners are employed by somebody. Most of them are not self-employed people and if more employment comes in, if there are more capital expenditures, more growth, clearly it will benefit those folks,” Ross said.
Trump on Wednesday told workers that they would win under his tax plan, saying it would help the middle class and boost the economy, though critics say it would mainly benefit corporations and the rich.
Speaking in an airplane hangar at a Pennsylvania Air National Guard base in Harrisburg with a trailer truck behind him, Trump reiterated the basic points of the nine-page tax cut “framework” he unveiled two weeks ago, Reuters reported.
Kudlow's wide-ranging interview with Ross was conducted at Google's headquarters in Washington.
The session will re-air on Newsmax TV, as well on DirecTV 349, FiOS 615 and U-Verse 1220 – and other outlets. More Info Here.
It will be re-broadcast on Saturday at 1 p.m. and on Sunday at 10 a.m., all times Eastern.
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