A United Nations human rights investigator railed against the Trump administration saying that their policies were removing protections from the poorest and rewarding the wealthy – a line often heard from left-wing extremists.
“But the policies pursued over the past year seem deliberately designed to remove basic protections from the poorest, punish those who are not in employment and make even basic health care into a privilege to be earned rather than a right of citizenship,” U.N. special rapporteur on extreme poverty Philip Alston said.
There’s only one thing wrong with his analysis – he used statistics that only went through 2016, according to a Reuters report.
However, the data from the U.S. Census Bureau he cited covers only the period through 2016, and he gave no comparative figures on the extent of poverty before and after Trump came into office in January 2017.
Alston, an Australian citizen, also pointed out that Black unemployment is double that of Whites, but failed to note that Black unemployment is at its lowest level ever or that the gap between black and white unemployment is the narrowest since the government started keeping records.
As the overall unemployment rate continues to fall — the lowest since 2000 — it’s also shrinking the gap between black and white unemployment. It is the narrowest on record.
Black unemployment dropped sharply last month, down from 6.6% in April. The gap between black and white unemployment shrank to 2.4 percentage points, the first time on record it’s been less than 3 points.
The U.N. inspector went on to criticize Trump’s tax reform, despite its amazing effect on the American economy and unemployment.
“The tax reform will worsen this situation and ensure that the United States remains the most unequal society in the developed world,” Alston said. “The planned dramatic cuts in welfare will essentially shred crucial dimensions of a safety net that is already full of holes.”
Alston’s rant is a socialist dream misleadingly based on statistics from Obama’s time in office. Coming from a U.N. official, nothing better is expected.
