Sen. Bill Hagerty repeated the same lie on Fox Business to Stuart Varney that Trump economic advisor Kevin Hassett did to Fox News Sunday when he claimed Americans are very optimistic about the economy when every indicator proves people are furious about the current state of the US economy under Trump's insane guidance.
TV cutout Kevin Hassett made the irritating claim that people are maxing out their credit cards and not being able to pay them down on time because they are optimistic for the future. He also said credit card companies are very happy, so it must all be fine for those people paying 27% interest on their purchases.
The reality is the exact opposite to Hassett's lies.
Today, Stuart Varney told Sen. Bill Hagerty the Trump administration should be bragging more about the stock market gains and claimed the middle class are making enormous financial gains. Hagerty agreed and called Trump's economy, "humming."
VARNEY: I believe 80 million households which have an IRA or a 401k though that kind of money is usually invested in the stock market and the stock market has been going from one record high to another. Maybe the president and the Republicans could make more of the enormous financial gains to America's middle class because of Wall Street's performance last word to you
HAGERTY: Stuart, that's a great suggestion and if you think about it stock markets are forward-looking. I think there's a lot of optimism in the future - and if you look at the new Trump accounts, the Trump IRAs that's gonna expand even more American access to the markets and let him have an ownership interest in the great future that's ahead of us. If you look at what we did with the big beautiful bill more incentive to invest capital in America this economy is humming so I think you're exactly right we should focus on it.
Varney's show targets the more wealthy people, so he is in a bubble when it comes to the working class.
People are well aware of their IRAs are 401(k)s, but if we look at the actual numbers we see a truer picture appears.
The Congressional Research Service says that 54% of U.S. households have retirement accounts.
That's over 150 million Americans that do not have retirement accounts.
Gallop reveals 83% of adults with household income of at least $100,000 have a retirement savings plan, compared to just 28% of those earning under $50,000.
That's roughly 23% of all individual workers that make $100,000.
See the problem, Stu?
Even if people's IRAs and 401(k)s are going up, their disposable income is being wiped out in record time, which has exploded credit card debt, causing them not to be able to contribute as much to their IRAs and 401(k)s.
Also, there are heavy penalties to dip into those retirement funds if needed to survive in today's world.
And as I said, people know how their retirement plans are doing and they still hate this economy. There is nothing optimistic about it.
The Trump administration and their mouthpieces have been running on promises of a better economy since Trump took office in 2025.
There promises have done about as much good to the US economy as thoughts and prayers have done to keep children safe from school massacres.
