--- title: Economists Fact-Check the Third Presidential Debate description: Economists on Twitter critiqued Donald Trump, Hillary Clinton, and Chris Wallace as they debated taxes, the economy, and the national debt. authors: - name: George Mannes url: https://money.com/author/george-mannes/ at_money_since: 2009 articles: 10 covers: - Career Advice - Credit Cards - Education - Investing - Personal Finance social: - https://x.com/dogbitesmannes former_staff: true published: '2016-10-20T04:38:13.000Z' modified: '2016-10-20T04:38:13.000Z' section: Economy and Politics tags: - 2016 Election - Election 2016 word_count: 332 canonical: https://money.com/third-presidential-debate-economists-fact-check/ type: Article source: structured-blocks --- > **Disclosure:** We research all brands listed and may earn a fee from our partners. Research and financial considerations may influence how brands are displayed. Not all brands are included. [Learn more](https://money.com/page/disclaimer/). ![Republican U.S. presidential nominee Donald Trump and Democratic U.S. presidential nominee Hillary Clinton take part in their third and final 2016 presidential campaign debate, moderated by Chris Wallace (C), at UNLV in Las Vegas, Nevada, U.S., October 19, 2016.](https://img.money.com/2016/10/161019_debate3_economistsfactcheck.jpg?crop=0px%2C248px%2C2100px%2C1181px&quality=85) *Republican U.S. presidential nominee Donald Trump and Democratic U.S. presidential nominee Hillary Clinton take part in their third and final 2016 presidential campaign debate, moderated by Chris Wallace (C), at UNLV in Las Vegas, Nevada, October 19, 2016.* Economists and economic commentators watching the third and final presidential debate Wednesday tweeted plenty of comments and criticism —directed not only at candidates Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump, but also at moderator Chris Wallace of Fox News. Here are some of the highlights: First, on the economic impact of each candidate's immigration plans, the nonpartisan Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget found extreme differences: Commentators questioned the value of Trump's comparison of U.S. economic growth to that of China and India. They also objected to Chris Wallace's characterization of President Obama's 2009 stimulus plan, which, Wallace said, "has led to the slowest GDP growth since 1949." Whose policies would be better—or worse—for the national debt? One vote for Clinton was from Heather Boushey, executive director and chief economist of Equitable Growth, a think tank that studies economic inequality: But Clinton's claim that her economic plan wouldn't increase the national debt encountered some skepticism: The anti-big-government Club for Growth argued that Clinton's economic plans, despite her protestations to the contrary, won't affect only the wealthiest Americans: Trump's promise of economic growth seemed farfetched to Matt O'Brien of Wonkblog: In fact, GDP under a Trump administration would actually shrink, Boushey contended: On health care, University of Chicago's Harold Pollack objected to Trump's linking the Affordable Care Act (a.k.a. Obamacare) to the challenges facing Social Security and Medicare: As for Social Security, neither candidate's answers seemed satisfactory: The conservative Club for Growth agreed with that: At the end of it all, University of Michigan economist Justin Wolfers judged the impact of the debate the way you'd expect an economist to judge the impact of the debate: by looking at the numbers. One number he looked at was the price of the Mexican peso against the US dollar: He also looked at prediction markets where people are betting on the outcome of the election: ```json { "@context": "https://schema.org", "@graph": [ { "@type": "BreadcrumbList", "@id": "https://money.com/third-presidential-debate-economists-fact-check/#breadcrumb", "itemListElement": [ { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 1, "name": "Home", "item": "https://money.com" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 2, "name": "Economy and Politics", "item": "https://money.com/economy-and-politics/" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 3, "name": "Elections", "item": "https://money.com/elections/" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 4, "name": "Economists Fact-Check the Third Presidential Debate" } ] }, { "@type": "WebSite", "@id": "https://money.com/#website", "url": "https://money.com", "name": "Money", "publisher": { "@id": "https://money.com/#organization" } }, { "@type": "WebPage", "@id": "https://money.com/third-presidential-debate-economists-fact-check/#webpage", "url": "https://money.com/third-presidential-debate-economists-fact-check/", "name": "Economists Fact-Check the Third Presidential Debate", "isPartOf": { "@id": "https://money.com/#website" }, "datePublished": "2016-10-20T04:38:13.000Z", "mainEntity": { "@id": "https://money.com/third-presidential-debate-economists-fact-check/" }, "inLanguage": "en-US", "breadcrumb": { "@id": "https://money.com/third-presidential-debate-economists-fact-check/#breadcrumb" }, "dateModified": "2016-10-20T04:38:13.000Z" }, { "@type": "Article", "headline": "Economists Fact-Check the Third Presidential Debate", "articleSection": "Economy and Politics", "image": [ { "@type": "ImageObject", "url": "https://img.money.com/2016/10/161019_debate3_economistsfactcheck.jpg?crop=0px%2C248px%2C2100px%2C1181px&quality=85", "width": 1012, "height": 569, "caption": "161019_Debate3_EconomistsFactcheck" } ], "author": [ { "@type": "Person", "name": "George Mannes", "url": "https://money.com/author/george-mannes/", "@id": "https://money.com/author/george-mannes/#author", "image": "https://img.money.com/2014/05/14-05-21_bio_authors_mannes.jpg?quality=85&w=190&h=190&crop=1", "email": "gmannes@moneymail.com", "sameAs": [ "https://x.com/dogbitesmannes" ] } ], "publisher": "https://money.com/#organization", "datePublished": "2016-10-20T04:38:13.000Z", "description": "Economists on Twitter critiqued Donald Trump, Hillary Clinton, and Chris Wallace as they debated taxes, the economy, and the national debt.", "abstract": "Economists on Twitter critiqued Donald Trump, Hillary Clinton, and Chris Wallace as they debated taxes, the economy, and the national debt.", "@id": "https://money.com/third-presidential-debate-economists-fact-check/", "inLanguage": "en-US", "dateModified": "2016-10-20T04:38:13.000Z", "wordCount": 332, "keywords": [ "2016 Election", "Election 2016" ], "about": [ { "@type": "Thing", "name": "Political economy", "sameAs": [ "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Political_economy" ] }, { "@type": "Thing", "name": "Election", "sameAs": [ "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Election" ] } ] } ] } ```