Economists Agree: Trump Is Full of Shit

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Republicans will be voting to take health care away from 24 million people in an hour or so, but while we wait for this vicious act of wanton cruelty to become official, let’s talk about President Trump’s tax plan. Will it pay for itself via supercharged economic growth? The IGM Forum asked a panel of economists:

Well, that’s pretty unani—wait. What’s that 5 percent of economists who strongly agree? Who the hell are these people?

The answer is Bengt Holmström of MIT and Kenneth Judd of Stanford. Seriously? Ha ha. No, just kidding. We think. The moderator adds this in comments: “Panelist meant to Strongly Disagree (question misread)….This is my best guess.”

So it was really 100 percent of economists who think the “plan” has zero chance of paying for itself. But maybe some enterprising reporter should ring up Holmström and Judd just to make sure.

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WE'LL BE BLUNT

We need to start raising significantly more in donations from our online community of readers, especially from those who read Mother Jones regularly but have never decided to pitch in because you figured others always will. We also need long-time and new donors, everyone, to keep showing up for us.

In "It's Not a Crisis. This Is the New Normal," we explain, as matter-of-factly as we can, what exactly our finances look like, how brutal it is to sustain quality journalism right now, what makes Mother Jones different than most of the news out there, and why support from readers is the only thing that keeps us going. Despite the challenges, we're optimistic we can increase the share of online readers who decide to donate—starting with hitting an ambitious $300,000 goal in just three weeks to make sure we can finish our fiscal year break-even in the coming months.

Please learn more about how Mother Jones works and our 47-year history of doing nonprofit journalism that you don't find elsewhere—and help us do it with a donation if you can. We've already cut expenses and hitting our online goal is critical right now.

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