Joint Legislative Hearing on 2025 Exec. Budget Proposal: Economic Development/Arts – 02/26/2025

Consumer confidence is once again plunging as President Donald Trump is preparing to unveil yet another round of tariffs on imported goods in just over a week.

As reported by CNN, "Consumer confidence slid 7.2 points this month to a reading of 92.9, the Conference Board said Tuesday in its latest survey, extending a decline that began in December," while emphasizing that "March’s decline was similar to February’s, underscoring the growing pessimism among US consumers."

Additionally, CNN writes that "not only are Americans expecting higher inflation this year, but more of them are also predicting that the economy will slip into a recession."

Many economics commentators on social media argued that this plunge in confidence is a direct reaction to Trump's trade wars, which have sent the stock market plunging from record highs and had significantly lowered earnings guidance for many big American corporations.

"The bigger concern is an almost-10 point drop in consumer expectations, which leaves it at a 12-year low," commented Washington Post economics columnist Catherine Rampell on BlueSky. "That's now well below threshold that usually signals a recession ahead."

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Former Biden administration economist Jared Bernstein said that while he almost never blamed a single president for the state of the economy, he was making an exception in the case of Trump.

"As someone who has carefully tracked noisy economic data for decades, it takes a lot to get me to say the following: Trump administration policies are clearly and sharply damaging consumer confidence," he wrote. "IOW, not a blip, not one series or one month."

MSNBC economics analyst Steve Rattner, meanwhile, said that the plunge in confidence showed that "Trump's presidency has made Americans as pessimistic as they were during a pandemic-induced economic crisis."

Peter Schiff, the chief economist at Euro Pacific Asset Management, argued that the latest data undercuts efforts to put a happy spin on the current state of the economy.

"Powell claims there is no evidence the U.S. economy is weak," he wrote on X. "March data says otherwise. Philly Fed Services crashed to -32.5, its weakest since COVID in April 2020, the Richmond Fed Mfg. Index sank to -4, and Consumer Confidence plunged to 92.9, the 4th consecutive monthly drop."

Tom Hearden, a senior trader at hedge fund Skylands Capital wrote sarcastically on BlueSky that "this is Biden's fault."

Rep. Anna Pauling Luna (R-FL) took her fight with House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) public over whether or not proxy voting will be allowed for new parents who are members of Congress.

In a Tuesday post on the X social media platform, Luna shared images of what appeared to be proof of Johnson casting proxy votes in the past.

She said Johnson was "a kind man and his heart is in the right spot but he's wrong on proxy voting for new parents."

"Here are some documents showing him voting by proxy in the 117th Congress, as late as December 2022! He argues it's 'unconstitutional' but has done it several times," she said.

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Despite using proxy voting himself, Johnson has said that he believes the practice is "unconstitutional."

"I've tried to discuss this with Anna, and she's pretty stubborn about it, so we'll see what happens," the speaker said earlier this month. "But I'm not in favor of it. I filed a brief to the United States Supreme Court explaining that proxy voting is clearly unconstitutional so, you know, I have a real concern about it."

Luna is part of a bipartisan group of lawmakers pushing for proxy voting for new parents.