Kellyanne Conway is crediting the entire Trump administration with a slight uptick in life expectancy in the CDC’s latest report.. Conway neglected to note that while life expectancy rates increased to 78.7 years from 78.6 – about just one month more – the suicide rate increased 1.4 percent from 2017 to 2018. Deaths related to influenza (flu) and pneumonia jumped by more than 4 percent, and “deaths due to synthetic opioids such as fentanyl went up 10 percent,” as NBC News reports.
“We come before you bearing good news,” Conway said in the rarely-used press briefing room Thursday. “For the first time in four years, life expectancy in the United State of America has increased. And for the first time in 29 years, the number of drug overdose deaths has decreased.”
“This has not happened through coincidence, it’s happened through causation. It’s owing in large part to a whole of government approach to treat the whole person, led by President Trump, First Lady Melania Trump and really the entire administration.”
Conway offered no proof of her claims that a “whole of government approach to treat the whole person” effort actually exists, despite her tweeting that phrase out last year. Nor did she offer proof if it does exist it has had any impact.