The Wharton School of Business pushed back against Vice President Kamala Harris on Friday after she claimed that the institution said her economic plan would help strengthen the economy.
Harris made the claim during a political forum event with superstar Oprah Winfrey, citing Goldman Sachs, Moody’s, the Wharton School of Business and 16 Nobel laureates.
Harris’ citation of Wharton appears to be a direct shot at former President Donald Trump who graduated from the school.
But Wharton clarified their views to Harris’ claim to Newsweek.
‘We did not find a positive impact on the economy from her plan in any future year. The Trump plan does increase GDP for a few years but lowers by the end of the 10-year budget window,’ a spokesperson for the University of Pennsylvania‘s Penn Wharton Budget Model (PWBM) said in a statement.
The school’s report predicted that Harris’ plan would increase the national deficit by as much as $2 trillion dollars, citing a dynamic estimate that includes the reduction in economic activity.
The report also pointed out that Harris’ plan would cause GDP to fall as well as capitol investment, working hours and wages.
The study, however, is not much kinder to Trump’s economic plan.
Donald Trump with his father, Fred Trump, after graduating from Wharton in 1968.
Wharton University of Pennsylvania sign near school campus
The report estimates that Trump’s plan could increase deficits by more than Harris’ but also specifies that ‘households across all income groups benefit on a conventional basis.’
Trump cited the Wharton School during his presidential debate with Harris.
‘Look, I went to the Wharton School of Finance and many of those professors, the top professors, think my plan is a brilliant plan, it’s a great plan. It’s a plan that’s going to bring up our worth, our value as a country,’ he said.
From 1902 to 1971, Pennsylvania State University’s business school was known as the ‘Wharton School of Finance and Commerce’ until they changed the name in 1972 to simply the ‘Wharton School.’
Trump graduated from the university in 1968.