Fact Check: Jeb Bush's economic growth goal unrealistic

Fact Check: Jeb Bush's economic growth goal unrealistic

REUTERS/Joe Skipper, CBS

http://www.cbsnews.com/news/fact-check-bushs-economic-growth-goal-unrealistic/

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Many economists say the U.S. economy is ill equipped to grow consistently at even close to 4 percent. Current forecasts put growth averaging half that rate. Any president, Republican or Democrat, would have to overcome decades-long trends that are largely beyond the control of the Oval Office.

Those trends include the retirements of the vast generation of baby boomers - an exodus that limits the number of workers in the economy. Rising automation and low-wage competition overseas are among other factors. A result has been meager income growth, which has cut into the consumer spending that drives most economic growth.

"It would require substantial changes in fiscal and regulatory policy that I don't believe any president could reasonably expect to enact in one term," said Robert Stein, an economist at First Trust Advisors who was a Treasury Department official during George W. Bush's presidency.

In his campaign announcement on Monday, Jeb Bush said "there is not a reason in the world why we cannot grow at a rate of 4 percent a year. And that will be my goal as president - 4 percent growth, and the 19 million new jobs that come with it."


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