MSNBC's Kasie Hunt asked Lotter in an interview about the president's launch rally, which kicks off in Orlando Tuesday evening. She noticed there were signs saying "promises made, promises kept," but wasn't sure exactly what it was referencing.
"I think the president’s message is going to be based on promises made, promises kept," he confessed. "He’s going to highlight the economy. He’s going to highlight that for the first time in ten years that paychecks are growing. We have more jobs than we do job seekers. These are all very positive benefits to the president’s leadership. And it’s going to be a choice."
He then pivoted to bash Democrats who are in a primary election with nearly two dozen candidates.
"Marc, I take your point on the economy and the jobs numbers but those trends were started under President Obama," he said. "And the reality is there are a lot of Americans who don’t feel as though they are getting ahead, even though those unemployment numbers do seem to be at their lowest yet."
Indeed, voters at an Ohio town hall MSNBC hosted Monday night lamented that there are a lot of people employed, they're just working two jobs to be able to make it. According to a Pew Research report, for most Americans, wages haven't budged in decades.
"Average hourly earnings for non-management private-sector workers in July were $22.65, up 3 cents from June and 2.7 percent above the average wage from a year earlier, according to data from the federal Bureau of Labor Statistics," Pew wrote. "That’s in line with average wage growth over the past five years: Year-over-year growth has mostly ranged between 2 percent and 3 percent since the beginning of 2013. But in the years just before the 2007-08 financial collapse, average hourly earnings often increased by around 4 percent year-over-year."
"After adjusting for inflation, however, today’s average hourly wage has just about the same purchasing power it did in 1978," the report went on.
Lotter said that the data shows that the people on the lowest end of the spectrum are seeing more money in their checks and maintained there's no better time to get a job. He then went on to promote the GOP tax bill, which gave massive cuts to the top wage earners and corporations.
The Congressional Research Service, however, shows that the GOP's tax cut did little to actually help Americans.
"Well, the data shows that 82% of middle-class Americans got a tax cut," Lotter claimed. "Ninety percent of people saw their paychecks go up because of the tax cuts and Jobs act. So these — this is the day and now what we have to do is make sure they’re connecting it. They’re connecting the dots that these are the actions of what a Republican leadership was able to do."
He's correct that Americans saw more money, but the money barely buys an American a tank of gas.
"Workers received only marginal benefits, with bonuses from companies amounting to just $28 per employee," the report said.
Watch Lotter below:
