Stephen Moore

Credentials

Stephen Moore is a graduate of the University of Illinois and holds an MA in Economics from George Mason University.¹

Background

Stephen K Moore is the founder and former President of the Club for Growth and a visiting fellow at the “arch-conservative“ Heritage Foundation.² Moore has held a wide range of positions at conservative think tanks including the Cato Institute (former senior fellow), the Media Research Center (former advisor), and Donors Capital Fund (former director). In 2016, Moore was chosen to become part of Donald Trump’s Economic Advisory Team.³

Stephen Moore previously served as Senior Economist for the Joint Economic Committee under Chairman Dick Armey of Texas (former chair of FreedomWorks) and Research Director of President Reagan’s commission on Privatization in 1987.⁴

Stephen Moore, who has called climate change “climate improvement,” has repeatedly cited the debunked Oregon Petition as well as Bjorn Lomborg‘s “Copenhagen Consensus” to suggest there is still a debate on climate science. More has also called anyone who believes in man-made climate change “Stalinistic.”⁵

Moore is co-author, with Kathleen Hartnett-White (who also serves on Trump’s Economic Advisory Team) of Fueling Freedom: Exposing the Mad War on Energy. According to a review of the book in American Thinker, “Rather than worrying that carbon energy resources are destroying the planet and looking to renewable energy as an alternative, the authors suggest we should celebrate the vast contributions fossil fuels made during the past century.”⁶

Moore, a regular Fox News contributor, has compared fracking to a cure for cancer in the past,⁷ and has also distorted a NASA study to claim that it was an “indication” that global warming is “actually not happening.”⁸

On March 22, 2019, President Donald Trump announced he planned to nominate Stephen Moore for a position on the federal reserve. Trump called Moore “a very respected” economist who he has known “for a long time — and have no doubt he will be an outstanding choice!” CNBC reported.⁹ Moore later withdrew himself from consideration.¹⁰

Donald Trump’s Economic Advisor

Stephen Moore was chosen as Donald Trump’s campaign adviser and was picked by Trump,¹¹ along with CNBC contributor Larry Kudlow, to re-write Trump’s tax plan.¹² He has been on Trump’s “Economic Advisory Council.”¹³

“What we’ve been trying to do is help advise him a little bit to try to reduce the cost of the plan,” Moore said in an interview.¹⁴

E&E News noted that “Since Moore came on board this spring to advise Trump on his tax plan, he’s been encouraging Trump to hit back against Democrats’ claims that the transition to more wind and solar energy will be good for the economy and the environment.”¹⁵ ¹⁶

Moore wrote a February 2016 article in The American Spectator featuring a glowing review of Donald Trump:

“Meanwhile, Trump surges. His splendid victory speech last night, ‎was all about love of country – about patriotism,” Moore wrote.

“It is striking that Trump is the anti-Obama in every way. Obama blames America first for every problem on the earth, from global warming to terrorism. Trump emanates love for America and pledges to “make America great again.”

[…]

The rub against Trump that he can’t win in November looks to be wrong. Trump certainly has some profound defects and his problem with minorities and women cannot be ignored. ‎He’s unpredictable and sometimes crude.

On the other hand, Trump could expand the Republican base to include independents and union Democratic voters. Trump is also getting better each day as he expands his base rather than shrinking it. Trumpmania is a Black Swann political event that we’ve never seen before and may not ever see again.”¹⁷

Criticism

Stephen Moore’s critics have called Moore a “A voodoo economist … [who uses] especially devious methods to torture the data,” (The New Republic‘s Jonathan Chait),¹⁸ with a career “marked by a pattern of errors, deception and falsehood,” (Brendan Nyhan and Ben Fritz)¹⁹. Economist Brad DeLong said that “Moore has zero credibility.”²⁰

Economist Jared Bernstein of the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities (CBPP) responded to Moore’s claim that “right-to-work” laws would offer extra protection to workers in Wisconsin in a March 2, 2015, op-ed in The Washington Post:²¹

“Workers in a bargaining unit in non-RTW states don’t even have to pay full union dues. If they object to, say, the union’s political activities, they can pay reduced dues that cover only the costs of negotiating and enforcing the contract. Since that’s most of what local unions do, by the way, such fees amount to 80 percent to 90 percent of full dues.

So when Steve Moore of the Heritage Foundation claims that workers in non-RTW states ‘can be compelled to join a union and pay dues at a union shop whether they wish to or not’ or that they “can even be forced to pay union dues for partisan political activities with which they don’t agree,” he’s deep within a fact-free zone.”²²

In a 2015 New York Times blog post, Paul Krugman investigated the “mystery” of Moore’s successful career in economic policy, concluding that Moore is not held accountable for consistently making bad predictions and misstating basic facts about the economy because “incompetence is actually desirable” in his field:²³

“But here’s the mystery: evidently Moore has had a successful career. Why?

Think about Heritage: It’s immensely wealthy, and could surely afford to hire a technically competent right-wing hack. The Wall Street Journal, similarly, could have attracted someone much less likely to trip over his own intellectual shoelaces. Again, the problem isn’t even that Moore got the macroeconomics of recent years all wrong, although he did; it’s the inability to write without making embarrassing mistakes.

So why is he there (and he’s not alone — there are some other incompetent hacks at Heritage)?

I suspect that the incompetence is actually desirable at some level — a smart hack might turn honest, or something, But it’s remarkable.”²⁴

The editorial page director of the Kansas City Star said that she “won’t be running anything else from Stephen Moore” after she discovered “substantial factual errors” in an Op-Ed that Moore had written criticizing economist Paul Krugman.²⁵

Stance on Climate Change

June 3, 2016

In an interview on the Janet Mefford Today Show, Moore described global warming as “one of the greatest propaganda campaigns in world history” and a “dingbat idea,” CNSNews.com reported.²⁶

“It’s really amazing, I have to say. I have to tip my hat to the left: This has been one of the greatest propaganda campaigns in world history that the left has pulled off,” Moore said.²⁷

“I mean, they’ve taken this dingbat idea of global climate change and they’ve put it in the schools, they’ve put it in the movies, they’ve put it in the media and the churches — you know, I’m Catholic, even the Pope talks about climate change.”

“So, it’s very alarming how this propaganda campaign, that they made this stuff out of, almost completely out of thin air and they’ve convinced millions and millions of thought leaders that this stuff is real.”

“They’re becoming more militaristic. They are young Stalinists. I can’t go on college campuses today even question their religion of global warming — and it is a religion by the way.”²⁸

Key Quotes

February 14, 2018

“We need a change in strategy and philosophy when it comes to mining. For federal land development, the 20th-century philosophy of ‘lock up and preserve’ needs to be replaced with an ethic of ‘use and explore.’ We have hundreds of years of these resources with existing technology,” Moore wrote at the Daily Journal in an article titled “Let’s make America a mineral superpower.”²⁹

January 28, 2018

Moore suggested that President Donald Trump may be the reason for a boost in the economy, and that “the economy was decelerating at the end of the Obama presidency”:³⁰

“If Mr. Trump had continued Mr. Obama’s policies, one might not credit him for today’s strong economy. But Mr. Trump has begun to systematically overturn Obama policies on taxes, regulations, energy, climate change, net neutrality, budget priorities and health care — as well as replacing Janet Yellen as chairwoman of the Federal Reserve. Trumponomics is Obamanomics in reverse,” Moore wrote at the New York Times.

November 15, 2016

“We have the cleanest coal in the world,” Moore said on Fox Business’s Varney & Co.³¹

September 2016

Media Matters reported that a week after Stephen Moore said that Donald Trump’s economic plan was designed to be vague, he contradicted himself by saying it was the “most detailed” plan of any candidate:³²

“But, back to this idea that there’s no detailed plan, because I never really answered your question about that. We’ve put forward the most detailed economic plan, I think, of any candidate in 40 years. I mean, we’ve got a very detailed tax plan.”³³

August 1, 2016

On the August 1 edition of C-SPAN2‘S Book TV, Moore compared fracking to a cure for cancer, Media Matters reported.

“Now, look, to be against fracking is like being against a cure for cancer. This is one of the great seismic technological breakthroughs. We’re way ahead of the rest of the world. It’s giving us access to huge amounts of energy at very low prices. How could anybody be against this?”³⁴

July 2016

Appearing on the July 29 edition of Fox News’ Your World with Neil Cavuto, Moore declared:³⁵

“Now, why not tax the rich? I’ll tell the mayor why not. When you talk about those people in the top one percent, Mayor, you know this, over half of them, nearly 2/3rds of them, are small business owners, investors, and operators. How are you going to get more businesses and how are you going to get more jobs, Mr. Mayor, if you’re going to tax the very businesses that create the jobs?”

March 15, 2015

“I am no scientist, but I’m highly skeptical of a movement whose first advice is to steer the U.S. economy off a cliff toward financial ruin,” Moore wrote in a Washington Times Article.³⁶

October 2013

“Hydraulic fracturing is like the equivalent in health care for a cure for cancer,” Moore declared on Fox News’s Happening Now.³⁷

May 10, 2011

“The problem I have with though, this circles back to the whole issue of when we pay for gasoline at the pump. If you raise the taxes on gasoline and oil, the price of gasoline and oil isn’t going to go down. The price of gasoline and oil is going to go up,” Moore declared on an edition of Fox News’s Happening Now.³⁸

April 2011

On Glenn Beck’s podcast, Moore said that “Radical Environmentalists” Are “Plot[ting]” To “Grind The American Economy To A Halt.”³⁹

March 2011

“I hope, I sincerely hope the president doesn’t really believe that we can engine and power a $15 trillion industrial economy with windmills. It ain’t going to happen,” Moore said on Fox News’s Hannity.⁴⁰ ⁴¹

February 7, 2011

“I love the idea of eliminating entire agencies like the Department of Energy,” Moore declared on Fox News’s America’s Newsroom.⁴²

June 2009

Stephen Moore called a recent white house climate impacts report “Stalinistic”:

“What I object to about this report is some of the language in this is sort of almost Stalinistic, that there’s an unequivocal conclusion that it’s inarguable that this is happening, that there’s overwhelming agreement among the scientists. None of that is true.”

“We’ve talked about global warming as climate improvement. […] The good news is that the bad news is wrong.”⁴³

Key Actions

February 8, 2022

Moore published an op-ed in the Bakersfield Californian that claimed:⁴⁴

“Liberals … live their lives in fear. Liberals are much more likely to believe that global warming will doom us than are conservatives. To listen to some of the more fanatical climate change worriers, they seem almost to want global warming to happen so we can pay penance for our sins to the planet.”

Moore likened this to beliefs about the pandemic. He wrote that, “from the start of the pandemic until recently, liberals were twice as likely to be ‘very worried’ about COVID-19 than conservatives.” He explained these observations as “something sociologically different about how liberals view risks than conservatives.”

December 7, 2019

Moore wrote an op-ed for the Washington Times calling for an end to electric vehicle tax rebates. Moore claimed that EV tax credits were subsidizing wealthy car buyers in New York and California, and that they did not benefit the average consumer.⁴⁵

“Rather than unworkable wealth taxes on America’s millionaires and billionaires,” Moore wrote, “wouldn’t it be better if Mrs. Pelosi and Mr. Schumer stopped subsidizing them?”⁴⁶

May 9, 2019

Stephen Moore, representing the Committee to Unleash Prosperity, signed on to an open letter organized by the American Energy Alliance designed to fight against an electric vehicle tax credit.⁴⁷

“The American Energy Alliance has organized a coalition to proclaim in one unified voice that there should be no expansion of the misguided electric vehicle tax credit,” Thomas Pyle wrote in a statement, quoted at The Daily Caller. “There is no question that the electric vehicle tax credit distorts the auto market to no gain.”⁴⁸

According to Pyle and others who signed the letter, electric vehicle tax credits “overwhelmingly benefit the rich.” DeSmog’s Koch vs. Clean project has systematically debunked this, among other well-rehearsed talking points and misinformation put forward by industry about electric vehicles.⁴⁹

The letter cites research by the Pacific Research Institute (PRI), a group that has received over $600,000 from ExxonMobil and millions from “dark money” groups DonorsTrust and Donors Capital Fund.⁵⁰

August 19, 2018

Moore wrote an op-ed that was published at The Washington Times⁵¹ and RealClear Politics suggesting that recent data about GHG emissions in the United States was justification that “President Trump was completely right to pull the United States out of the flawed Paris accord.”⁵²

“Those who think they are helping save the planet by purchasing an electric car, or putting a solar panel on their roof, or trying to shut down coal production in the United States are barking up the wrong tree. If we want to stop greenhouse gases, there is no way to make progress without China and India on board — which they clearly are not,” Moore wrote.⁵³

Earlier in the summer, InsideClimate News reported on the same issue as Moore. However, ICN noted that in 2017 “[w]hile most countries’ emissions increased, some, including the United States, saw declines driven largely by renewable energy deployments.”⁵⁴

Rather than reaching Moore’s conclusion, that “[t]hose who think they are helping save the planet by purchasing an electric car, or putting a solar panel on their roof, or trying to shut down coal production in the United States are barking up the wrong tree,” ICN highlighted how market forces have been partially responsible for the increase in renewable energy as well.⁵⁵

“Renewable energy provided a record 17 percent of U.S. electricity generation in 2017. That’s a percentage that will likely continue to grow, said Glen Peters, researcher director at the Center for International Climate Research in Oslo,” the ICN article noted.⁵⁶

January 29, 2018

The Washington Times announced that Moore would become its new associate opinion editor. “There is no greater voice preaching prosperity and free markets in Washington today than Stephen Moore,” Times Opinion Editor Charles Hurt said. “He doesn’t just talk and write about these things. He has a track record of proving their success. We are delighted to have him join the Opinion pages.”⁵⁷

“It’s exciting to add to my role at The Washington Times. The paper has long served as a premier news outlet in the nation’s capital,” Mr. Moore said. “The commentary section has been a must-read for conservatives every morning for as long as I have lived in Washington.”⁵⁸

December 8, 2016

Stephen Moore was a speaker at the “At the Crossroads III Energy and Climate Summit,” an event co-hosted by the Heritage Foundation and the Texas Public Policy Foundation (TPPF). The event was billed as “the premier energy-and-climate policy event in America,” and attracted a range of prominent climate change deniers as well as a range of names connected to Donald Trump and his transition team.⁵⁹

Doug Domenech, director of the Texas Public Policy Foundation’s “Fueling Freedom” project, wrote about the proceedings at The Hill. Domenech outlined the common climate change denial message shared among the speakers: “Is climate change real? Yes, it has happened in the past and will happen in the future. Is man making an impact on the climate? Perhaps but in very small ways. But the overarching consensus remains the climate change we are experiencing is by no means catastrophic.”⁶⁰

Speakers included:

November 15, 2016

Stephen Moore went on Fox Business’ Varney & Co where he discussed “Stalinist global warming rules.” According to Moore, “we have the cleanest coal in the world. Video below.⁶¹

STUART VARNEY (Host): This is a quote from you. Defy Stalinist global warming rules and burn coal. Are we gonna do that, and when?

STEPHEN MOORE (Trump Adviser): Yeah. I mean look, Donald Trump made a very specific promise to the coal miners of America: We’re going to try to put as many of them back in their jobs. These Stalinistic rules that deal with climate change have put so many tens of thousands of our coal miners out of work. By the way, Stuart, do you know how much coal – guess how many years of coal we have in this country. Just take a wild guess.

VARNEY: Couple of hundred years worth?

MOORE: You’re wrong. 500 years. We have more coal than any other country in the world. We’re the Saudi Arabia of coal. Hell yes, we should use our coal resources. And by the way, for the environmentalists, we have the cleanest coal in the world. Great story in The Wall Street Journal people didn’t pay too much attention to on Wednesday because of the election: China is building like 100 new coal plants. How does it help the environment when we shut down our coal and China builds ten plants for every one we shut down? How does that reduce global warming?

August 1, 2016

During an episode of C-SPAN2‘s Book TV, while discussing his new book Fueling Freedom: Exposing the Mad War on Energy, Stephen Moore stated that opposing fracking “is like being against a cure for cancer” because it is “one of the great seismic technological breakthroughs” that is “giving us huge amounts of energy at very low prices.” Moore went on to criticize Florida high school students opposing fracking, saying they were “indoctrinated in their high school classes” to think that “somehow fracking is a bad thing.” Video below.⁶²

November 2, 2015

Stephen Moore appeared on the November 2 edition of Fox Business’ Varney & Co. The host, Stuart Varney, claimed a NASA study is “putting some doubt that some global warming theories are going the right way. That’s NASA saying that.”⁶³

Varney later brought on Stephen Moore, who complained that the media touts every “story that seems to validate global warming,” while supposedly ignoring studies like the NASA study, which are an “indication that it’s actually not happening.” At the end of the segment, Moore joked that “this might be the start of another Ice Age.” Media Transparency noted that Moore was distorting the original NASA study.⁶⁴

July 2015

Moore founded a group called the Committee to Unleash Prosperity with fellow economists Steve Forbes, Larry Kudlow, and Arthur B. Laffer. The group reportedly “aims to end America’s growth slump and restore faith in the American Dream.”⁶⁵

May 10, 2015

Stephen Moore declared in a Washington Times column that ”[t]he green energy movement in America is dead.”⁶⁶ Media Matters notes that a video, airing directly above Moore’s column, “makes clear that his characterization of the U.S. clean energy industry is blatantly false.”⁶⁷

According to Media Matters, “Moore egregiously distorted quotes from the IEA to falsely claim it ‘concedes that green energy is in fast retreat’ and that the clean energy industry ‘is getting crushed’ by low fossil fuel prices.”

April 5, 2013

Stephen Moore was confronted by science education activist Zack Kopplin about myths about climate science funding on an episode of Real Time with Bill Maher. Kopplin points out that Moore, who questioned the need for funding research on “snail mating habits,” is “not a scientist”:⁶⁸

January 2005

Moore was “privately ousted” as president of Club for Growth following a leadership dispute, the New York Times reported in July of 2005. In late May, Moore sent out a letter to many of the club’s members via a fund-raising letter for his new group:⁶⁹

“As you may have heard, I left the Club for Growth after I lost control of a board fight and was forced to resign as president and C.E.O. – despite our fabulous electoral successes in 2004.” He continued, “To see the club splintered this way was a heart-breaking tragedy, but the good news is most of the original founding committee members of the old Club for Growth that we built into such a political juggernaut helped me launch the Free Enterprise Fund.”⁷⁰

Affiliations

@StephenMoore on Twitter.

Publications

Moore has been contributing editor to both the National Review, was on the Editorial Board of the Wall Street Journal (WSJ), and on the Economic Board of Advisors for Time. His television appearances have included CNN’s Inside Politics, Crossfire and Moneyline, NBC’s Nightly News, Fox Morning News, and The McLaughlin Group.⁹⁴

Moore is the co-author of It’s Getting Better All the Time: 100 Greatest Trends of the Past 100 Years and author of Government: America’s #1 Growth Industry and the editor of Restoring the Dream: What House Republicans Plan to Do Now to Strengthen the Family, Balance the Budget, and Replace Welfare (Times Mirror, 1995).⁹⁵

Stephen Moore has been a prolific contributor to a range of publications including:

^{Image of Stephen Moore at top by Gage Skidmore from Peoria, AZ, United States of America [CC BY–SA 2.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0)], via Wikimedia Commons.}