The Majority Leader’s Office is now sending a weekly e-mail highlighting economic statistics and news that Members can use as they discuss the state of the economy and how House Democrats are working to spur economic growth, support job creation, and raise wages for the people.

QUOTE OF THE WEEK: “The phase-one agreement leaves many issues unresolved, so tensions between the two countries may continue… What has the deal accomplished? It will bring some significant changes but comes with a big price tag for the American economy. The long-term effects might end up favoring China… While Mr. Trump and his team celebrate their ‘victory’ over China, don’t expect much fanfare among anyone else. The trade deal limits some short-term damage to the economy, but China might end up being the winner when the dust settles.” [Eswar Prasad, Professor at Cornell University, New York Times,  1/15/20]

STAT OF THE WEEK:  “In 2017, the U.S. exported $186 billion in goods and services to China, and the most recent data for 2019 puts the figure at about $160 billion. To meet the targets, exports to China would have to rise to around $262 billion in 2020 and $309 billion in 2021, according to a Wall Street Journal analysis. For this year, that amounts to an increase of around 60%, in what would be an unprecedented jump in bilateral trade.” [Wall Street Journal, 1/16/20]

ECONOMIC NEWS YOU MAY HAVE MISSED

• Student debt is so overwhelming, students can’t afford to pay. “Since the explosion of student debt following the Great Recession, annual repayment rates, or the amount of existing balances lowered, have been just 3%, Moody’s said. Just 51% of borrowers whose took out loans from 2010-12 have made any progress at all in paying down their debt… Education also is now second only to mortgages as the highest form of debt for all Americans.” [CNBC, 1/16/20]
• The deficit breached $1 trillion. “The budget shortfall hit $1.02 trillion for the January-to-December period, a 17.1% increase from 2018, which itself had seen a 28.2% jump from the previous year.” [CNBC, 1/13/20]
• The threat of climate change is discussed at the World Economic Forum. “A decade of record-setting heat and ice melt, punctuated by the fires consuming Australia right now, position climate-change risks atop the list of concerns as chief executives from the world’s most powerful companies ready to gather in Davos. The biggest long-term risk cited in the latest World Economic Forum report issued Wednesday ahead of next week’s gathering at the elite Swiss resort was the possibility of extreme weather events. Other worries in the survey of more than 750 key decision-makers included the failure to properly plan for climate change, man-made environmental disasters such as oil spills, major biodiversity loss and natural disasters, including earthquakes or tsunamis.” [Market Watch, 1/16/20]
• Fourteen states, the District of Columbia and New York City sue the Trump Administration for its food stamp proposal. “‘States are in the best position to evaluate local economic circumstances and to determine where there are insufficient job opportunities such that work requirements would be ineffective,’ they said in a 99-page lawsuit, filed Thursday in federal court in Washington. The new rule ‘eliminates State discretion and criteria’ and will terminate ‘essential food assistance for benefits recipients who live in areas with insufficient jobs.’” [Washington Post, 1/16/20]