Offsetting that, Trump presumably believes, could be a crucial sliver of the vote in trade-impacted Rust Belt states like Pennsylvania, Ohio, and Michigan — voters who might have even supported Bernie Sanders or similar anti-trade labor-oriented Democratic pols in the recent past. Doubling down on the white working-class vote by poaching Sanders supporters who already have a dim view of Hillary Clinton does make some sense at first blush. And Trump took care in his speech yesterday to quote Sanders and to cite research from the left-labor Economic Policy Institute.
New York Magazine
June 30, 2016
In his speech lamenting globalization and its ill effects on American workers, Donald Trump relied on the research and analysis of the liberal Economic Policy Institute over a dozen times. The prepared text cites the EPI’s work in footnotes again and again and again, to back up many of Trump’s claims about how our trade policies have destroyed American jobs, flattened wages, and pulverized the American middle class.
The Washington Post
June 30, 2016
The top 1% takes home more than 20% of all the income in the U.S., according to a report released in June 2016 by the nonprofit, nonpartisan think tank Economic Policy Institute, based in Washington D.C. “The share of all income held by the top 1% in recent years has approached or surpassed historical highs,” the report revealed.
MarketWatch
June 29, 2016
The Miami Herald
June 29, 2016
That’s what makes it striking that — rather than temper his primary-season language criticizing trade deals — Mr. Trump is, if anything, running to Mrs. Clinton’s left on the subject. He even cited the work of the Economic Policy Institute, a liberal think tank, in the speech. Notably, these were not off-the-cuff comments, but rather an enumerated platform scripted and read from a teleprompter.
The New York Times
June 29, 2016
It is a critique that has been leveled for years, mainly by a small group of liberal economists who have gained little traction even on the Democratic side. On Tuesday, Mr. Trump not only embraced their views, but also cited the work of the liberal Economic Policy Institute by name.
The New York Times
June 29, 2016
The Washington Post quoted EPI’s Lawrence Mishel on wages made by Uber drivers. “Uber likes to play it both ways. It claims that it’s the future of work, while it also emphasizes that most of the drivers work less than 10 or 12 hours a week. They want to be the wave of the future, but they also want to picture themselves and their drivers earning [extra] money.”
The Washington Post
June 28, 2016