The GOP had it’s “Make America Work Again” night at the Republican National Convention and something was strangely missing from many of the speeches given: actual talk about the economy. One might expect them to spend the entire night bashing President Obama and harping on their perception that he has crippled the economy during his eight years in office. But when all was said and done, they didn’t. In fact, nearly half of the prime-time speakers for night two of the convention didn’t even mention the economy at all. In other words, day two was nearly as bad as day one for the GOP.
I took a look at the transcripts of each prime-time speaker and couldn’t help but notice the lack of substantive talk about economic policy. It’s nearly impossible to find one mention of something Donald Trump might do to improve the economy. Here’s a brief look at what I found.
Of the 20 total speakers, 8 failed to bring up the economy whatsoever. Of the other 12, three only mentioned the loss of jobs, which is a blatant lie as pointed out below.
In other words, over half of their speakers either didn’t mention the economy at all or lied straight to everyone’s faces about it.
And only twice was anything that looked like a policy proposal mentioned: the Keystone Pipeline and getting rid of illegal immigrants. Plenty brought up Benghazi, but they all failed to mention eight GOP investigations found no wrongdoing on Hillary Clinton’s part.
So, there you have it. The big economic ideas from the GOP on their convention night devoted to the economy. A climate change-exacerbating pipeline that would give us 35 permanent jobs and an immigration plan that would cost hundreds of billions to implement, hundreds of billions to maintain, and would devastate the economy.
Here’s a quick look at the tallies on each prime-time convention speaker from night #2:
Sharon Day, Co-Chair of the Republican National Committee
Mentions of the economy: 1 (And it was a complete lie claiming “Americans across this country continue to lose their jobs.” Actually, we’ve now had 76 consecutive months of private sector job growth.)
Mentions of Benghazi: 1
Dana White, President, UFC
Mentions of the economy: 0 (Other than to say businesses are the “backbone of a strong economy.” Well, yeah.)
Mentions of Donald Trump being a fighter for this country: 2
Mentions of Donald Trump turning down the chance to fight for this country in Vietnam: 0
Governor Asa Hutchison, Governor of Arkansas
Mentions of the economy: 2 (And one was to note the low unemployment in Arkansas. I’ll direct you to the 76 consecutive month comment above. He did more to pat himself and Obama on the back than Donald Trump.)
Mentions of Benghazi: 1
Leslie Rutledge, Arkansas Attorney General
Mentions of the economy: 1 (With zero substance. And actually said this: “Donald Trump is growing jobs and putting America back to work.” I think she meant to say Barack Obama…)
Michael B. Mukasey, Former Attorney General
Mentions of the economy: 0
Mentions of Benghazi: 1
Andy Wist, Businessman
Mentions of the economy: 1 (Again, no substance and a claim of “too many people out of work… too many jobs shipped overseas”. And again, 76 months…)
U.S. Senator Ron Johnson (R-Wisconsin)
Mentions of the economy: 0 (He said the word “economy” but that was it.)
Mentions of Benghazi: 1
Chris Cox, Executive Director of NRA Institute for Legislative Action
Mentions of the economy: 0
Mentions of the “government has failed to keep us safe”: 1
Mentions of the government being the only people allowed to carry a gun to keep people safe inside the convention arena he was in: 0
Natalie Gulbis, Golfer, LPGA
Mentions of the economy: 0
U.S. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Kentucky)
Mentions of the economy: 1 (Which was mainly to mention the blockage of the Keystone Pipeline.)
Mentions that the Keystone Pipeline would only create 35 permanent jobs: 0 (There’s a significant part of your GOP economic plan, apparently, since this was the first mention of an actual policy.)
Mentions of Benghazi: 1
U.S. Speaker of the House Paul Ryan (WI-1)
Mentions of the economy: 3 (With once being to mention “Wages never seem to go up.”)
Mentions of raising the minimum wage to help wages to go up: 0
U.S. Senator Dan Sullivan (R-Alaska)
Mentions of the economy: 1 (Specifically pointing to coal and oil workers.)
Mentions that coal employment has been on the decline since the Carter administration and isn’t coming back: 0
U.S. House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy (CA-23)
Mentions of the economy: 2 (Again, pointed to a “destruction of jobs”. Yet, again, 76 months. In the words of Bill Maher: scoreboard b*tches!)
Governor Chris Christie, Governor of New Jersey
Mentions of the economy: 1 (To talk about the “Obama’s bloated stimulus plan”.)
Mentions that the government actually made billions off of that bloated stimulus plan: 0
Tiffany Trump, Daughter of Donald Trump
Mentions of the economy: 0
Kerry Woolard, General Manager, Trump Winery
Mentions of the economy: 0 (Her business with Trump, yes. Substantive economic issues important to most Americans, no.)
Donald Trump, Jr., Son of Donald Trump and EVP, The Trump Organization
Mentions of the economy: 1 (To blame all our problems on illegal immigrants, which I suppose gives us the second GOP economic solution of the night: deport all and build a wall.)
U.S. Senator Shelley Moore Capito (R-West Virginia)
Mentions of the economy: 4 (The longest part spent on coal jobs and another to claim the GOP would “not regulate jobs out of existence”. Again, please read above for both of these stupid claims.)
Ironical mention of devastation of floods in West Virginia while bashing of Obama for trying to fight climate change: 1
Dr. Ben Carson, Neurosurgeon
Mentions of the economy: 0 (A passing mention of poverty but it was more about schools.)
Mentions of Benghazi: 1
Times he fell asleep while speaking: Not sure. Kept falling asleep while listening.
Kimberlin Brown, Actor
Mentions of the economy: 3 (The closest any speaker came to describing actual Trump economic policy and still came up short. One of the mentions was jobs. Again, above.)
Mentions of Hillary Clinton paying her female staff less than men: 1 (Wasn’t the first of the night.)
Mentions of Donald Trump hiring fewer women for his campaign and paying them far and away less compared to men than Hillary Clinton: 0
As noted by the Boston Globe:
The women who work for Trump — who account for about 28 percent of his total staff — made an average of about $4,500 in April, according to the Globe analysis. The men made nearly $6,100, or about 35 percent more. The disparity is slightly greater than the gender pay gap nationally.
Of the 15 highest-paid employees for that month, only two were women.
The women working for Clinton — who account for 53 percent of her total staff — took home an average of $3,710. The men made slightly more, at $3,760. Clinton’s staffers, men and women, made less than the women who work for Trump.
On Clinton’s campaign, the highest-paid employee was a woman, Jennifer Palmieri, the campaign’s director of communications. And of the 15 highest-paid employees, eight were men and seven were women.
