National Economic Council Director Kevin Hassett was confronted on Fox News, of all places, with polling that shows most Americans have a negative view of the economy and blame it on President Donald Trump. His response? It’s just the government shutdown and your “mood,” or something.
Hassett: Well, what are the things that we’ve seen and we’ve studied over the last couple of weeks is that when there’s a government shutdown, then the things that we economists call the soft data—the survey data—tend to really, really tank because everyone’s in a terrible mood because Washington can’t work and the government’s shut down and they’re worried about how bad it’s going to be.
