As a part of the NBC News relationship with PolitiFact, we took a closer look at something Sen. David Perdue, R-Ga., told Chuck Todd during Thursday's episode of "MTP Daily". During a conversation about whether he thought Donald Trump could help improve America's economic outlook, Perdue said the following:
"We have the lowest worker participation rate since 1978. Poverty rate hasn’t changed. More businesses went out of business last year than were started for the first time in our history Chuck. This is an economic fiscal policy that is failing and I believe this guy [Trump] will absolutely set us in the right direction to change that.”
PolitiFact rated that claim as "false."
According to Politifact:
"First of all, government data doesn’t exist for last year. The most recent data, collected by the U.S. Census Bureau is from 2013 and it shows more businesses were created than crashed.The other part of Perdue’s statement – that this was the first time in country’s history that more businesses closed than opened – was rated false, too. The Census data only goes back to 1977 and there were multiple years the country lost more businesses than were created, including as recently as 2009 and 2010 during the Great Recession.Perdue’s office responded to the PolitiFact rating, saying: 'The trend is still downward of where it should be and that's the point the senator is making.'"
NBC News also reached out to Perdue's office for a comment. His senior communications director wrote, “We have seen a steady trend in recent years that more American businesses are closing than starting up in part because of over regulation. The cost of compliance makes starting a business in the Obama economy even harder than it used to be.”
Read PolitiFact's full analysis here.