Economic Related Incompetence

Here's a few funny economics-related items I'm late in commenting on that reflect how ignorant, incompetent, and out of depth the Trump administration is. 

First, Trump thinks that he came up with the common economic stimulus metaphor "priming the pump". Here's the transcript from his interview with The Economist:

But beyond that it’s OK if the tax plan increases the deficit? 

It is OK, because it won’t increase it for long. You may have two years where you’ll…you understand the expression “prime the pump”?

Yes. 

We have to prime the pump.

It’s very Keynesian. 

We’re the highest-taxed nation in the world. Have you heard that expression before, for this particular type of an event?

Priming the pump? 

Yeah, have you heard it?

Yes. 

Have you heard that expression used before? Because I haven’t heard it. I mean, I just…I came up with it a couple of days ago and I thought it was good. It’s what you have to do.

It’s… 

Yeah, what you have to do is you have to put something in before you can get something out.

The "prime the pump" metaphor has been around since at least the Great Depression, back when people actually had to prime pumps. Trump is such an ignorant dumbass that he's never heard this common term before and he thinks he invented it recently, or he forgot he's heard it before and thinks it popped into his head because he's so clever.


Second, the White House Office of Budget and Management made a multi-trillion dollar math error that its director couldn't even catch, or admit to making afterwards. Basically, they assumed that their proposed tax cuts (estimated to cost trillions over a decade) would pay for themselves through induced higher economic growth. Which is nonsensically optimistic, but whatever. 

So the tax cuts will supposedly generate growth required to make them deficit neutral. Then, to close a $1.3 trillion deficit by 2027 in Trump's budget proposal, they assume that tax cuts will increase economic growth enough to close the gap. Notice the problem? It's the same trick twice. How could the tax cuts be revenue neutral and increase revenue on net? Maybe they meant the tax cuts would be revenue positive, but they never made that claim. This is a very dumb, simple mistake. That it escaped the notice of everyone at OMB who laid eyes on it, including the director, further displays the utter incompetence of this administration.