The Trump administration could exclude government spending from future gross domestic product (GDP) reports, says Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick.
“You know that governments historically have messed with GDP,” Lutnick said in an interview with Fox News’ “Sunday Morning Futures.”
“They count government spending as part of GDP. So I’m going to separate those two and make it transparent,” he said.
For example, the U.S. government purchasing a tank contributes to the gross domestic product, but paying staff to think about buying that same tank “is not GDP,” he said.
“That is waste and inefficiency—wasted money. We’re going to get rid of that. We’re going to show you how it is,” Lutnick added….