Ex-Trump Economic Adviser to Newsmax: Biden, WH 'Spending Like Drunken Sailors'

The nation's economy should be booming at this point, but the numbers are "dismal" because President Joe Biden and his administration are "spending like drunken sailors" and inflation is running wild, Stephen Moore, who served as a senior economic adviser to former President Donald Trump, said on Newsmax Friday. 

"I think you can point to all of these policies [they have] put in place and that is why we've got this negative growth," Moore said on Newsmax's "National Report. "Then [Biden] goes out there and says what? On Wednesday, 'We're going to relieve $1.5 trillion in debt.' Where's that money going to come from? Then yesterday he says, 'I want $35 billion more for Ukraine.'"

Moore's comments come after Thursday's news that the U.S. economy shrank last quarter for the first time since the pandemic began two years ago, with it going down by 1.4%, and he said that "inflation is clearly the culprit here."

"When you have an 8.5% inflation rate, do you have any real growth?" asked Moore. "You've got to just get 8.5% growth just to stay even."

But now there is a "witches' brew" of reduced savings, reduced investments, reduced GDP, or reduced wages, but "the inflation is just a killer," he added. 

"If we persist with this type of inflation, we will have a recession," said Moore. "Now as you know, it's two quarters, two quarters in a row of negative growth or the official definition of a recession. Well, guess what? We just got the first quarter of negative growth, so that means the next two or three months are negative, and again, we are in an official recession."

Meanwhile, the Biden administration is blaming the numbers on the war in Ukraine, and on Trump or COVID-19, but Moore said that's all wrong, and that the economy should be booming. 

"COVID is basically over and businesses are reopening," said Moore. "Restaurants are reopening. People are getting out and going back to their jobs. There is no explanation for this reduction in growth other than these crazy spending and tax and regulation plans or policies that are depressing the economy."

But if Trump were president, Moore said, the economy would be booming. 

"We had 1.5% inflation when Trump left office," he said. "Now we're at 8.5%. We had energy independence. Now we've got to rely on the Russians and the Saudis for our energy and we've got to import it. We had an economy that was growing at a very brisk pace and all of that has been reversed in just 14 months."

Moore added that he thinks the country would be at a growth rate of 5-7% if Trump were in office.

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