Boosting economic growth will solve many problems in the United States, including the ongoing discussion about what to do about healthcare, Office of Management and Budget Director Mick Mulvaney said in a radio interview Saturday.
"When I speak to groups, I remind them, if you are a 30-year-old professional, your entire career has been spent in a depressed economy," Mulvaney told economist and Newsmax Finance insider and CNBC anchor Larry Kudlow on his national radio show. "We never saw three percent growth in a single year for the Obama administration, in the 90s, it was typical for us. There's no reason we can't get that back."
The Congressional Budget office's baseline for growth is at just around two percent or a bit lower, Kudlow noted. Mulvaney said he, Trump's chief economic adviser Gary Cohn, and Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin have gotten together to settle on a growth projection for the next 10 years, and while he did not name a number, as it has not officially been released, he could say that "it is higher than the CBO's." He also said it's "depressing" that the CBO had set its growth rate low.
Kudlow, a former associate director of economics for the OMB, said that according to the CBO's "rule of thumb," if the economic growth rate goes from 2 percent to three percent, "that gives roughly a $3 trillion deficit reduction over 10 years. That would be "more than three times this nutty BAT ( Business Adjustable Tax)."
Even healthcare could be relieved through economic growth, said Mulvaney, as more people will have insurance coverage when they once again have jobs.
"When Hillary [Clinton] came out with Hillarycare in the 1990s, she proposed to cover millions of people," said Mulvaney. "Bill succeeded in getting twice as many people covered through economic growth. Economic growth solves all of our problems."
Mulvaney said business confidence is also up to 93 percent, compared to 56 percent last year, as more people are willing to take a chance now.
"That's been gone for eight years," said Mulvaney. "We're trying to bring it back in the Trump administration."
Kudlow also had a suggestion that the Trump administration tackle business, rather than individual tax reform first.
"We have four months before the August recess," he said. "It will do the most benefits for middle income wage earners."
Mulvaney said he agrees in principle, but 80 percent of corporations pay individual rather than corporate taxes.
Kudlow also brought up an article he'd seen stating funding increases for the military may be pulled back from Trump's budget plans, which Mulavaney said would be news to him.
"We sent to the House not only the proposal for 2018, but also 2017 funding, [as the] government is only funded until the end of April," he said. "We are asking for $30 billion, plus $3 billion for the border this year. No, if you're hearing it's not happening, I need to hear who you're talking to."
Also on Saturday, Kudlow commented that he does not think its "fair or good" for Trump to go after members of the House Freedom Caucus for their pushback on the American Health Care act, and Mulvaney, a former member, agreed the caucus is "not the enemy."
"I pointed it out to the president this week," said Mulvaney. "More than half the Freedom Caucus supports the health care bill."
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