because one quarter of good growth that we ve had does not mean there is a sudden change in the overall trends. we have had four quarters above 4% growth under obama, and you know what? the long-term trend is the same. if you look at the cbo, if you look at the imf, if you look at the fed, if you look at any outside, independent analyst, they will tell you that the long-term structural trends in the economy persist. we have demographic challenges. we have lots of other issues related to productivity growth amongst other things that will persist and that will not go away just because we had trump add a $2 trillion stimulus in the form of a tax cut and a spending increase. one quarter of stronger gdp growth does not make a trend. all right. hold on. nig niger, a problem for each of you. i ll pick up on niger s point. here s the problem for you, catherine. one, do you have businesses
amongst other things that will persist and that will not go away just because we had trump add a $2 trillion stimulus in the form of a tax cut and a spending increase. one quarter of stronger gdp growth does not make a trend. all right. hold on. niger, a problem for each of you. i ll pick up on niger s point. here s the problem for you, catherine. one, do you have businesses having an optimistic look that measures higher than what we ve seen in recent history. that s true. unemployment is lower. the stock market is higher. trump is using those along with the growth of the quarter. look, fair point. 2017 i think was 2.3%. it wasn t a blowout year, but he thinks this year is going to be above 4% at the end. forecasters don t agree, but that s the trump hyperbole. the hard part for you is all of the numbers are better now than they were when he took over. isn t that unqualified success? no. it s a continuation of the same trends that we saw before.
remember that $1.3 trillion spending bill put together the other week just days before the government shutdown. we called it a swamp bill written by special interest for special interest. how right we were. we have taken a look at that 2,000 page peac piece of legisl. the spending bill is tonight s swamp watch. steve: one thing people liked was more money for the military especially a pay raise for the troops. how was that? it s really a 1.1% raise. it s less impressive that you compare to the industrial swamp got for the bill. the total increase was $55 billion. the raise for our troops adds up to 200 million. so just 3% of the spending
along with that title comes the expectation of smaller government and not a $1.3 trillion bill. talk to me. that s right. i don t think anybody, democrat, republican, conservative, liberal went home and campaigned saying they wanted to vote for the greatest spending, largest spending increase in history. 13% above last year. and not only that, har rises, you know harris, we get the bill, 2,230 pages at 8:30 last night. there was a night in there, i was up past midnight in the rules committee with amendments. but you could have stayed up all night anyhow, and read the bill and you still wouldn t be done. look, it s not good when the other side does it and not good when this side does it. we want to though what we re voting on. i go back to nancy pelosi, we ll to have pass it to see what is in it. this doesn t bode well. right, you can t be critical of that then and come in here and say we have a new president and this is our guys, now it s
chris: some people are suggesting this bipartisan spending deal means the era of spending restraint and the tea party is over. when you have big majorities of republicans in both the house and senate approving this kind of a bill. a republican president signing it. are those folks right? here s what i know. this was not consistent with what the american people elected us to do.not consistent with what we told her we were going to do. in your first segment with mick, he said we don t have six votes in the senate to get things done. i m all for changes in the senate rule. last time i checked, democrats don t have 60 votes either. last time i checked there are more republicans than democrats. more republicans in the house than democrats and a republican in the white house. so this deal which increased spending $300 billion, second-largest spending increase in a decade. second only to the stimulus was not what we said we were going to do. we are going to have to fight