Why Are Republican Presidents So Bad for the Economy?

pitabread said:

Meanwhile, there is the U.S.'s botched handling of the pandemic on Trump's watch and the economic devastation that hath wrought. Do we want to talk about that?

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You bet! With the stroke of a pen, Biden killed thousands of jobs on day one. Watch gas and energy prices go up in the next few months. Watch us getting reliant on Middle East oil again. Watch us get involved in more foreign wars again, as a result of that reliance. Watch the entire country exhaust any semblance of fiscal viability, as more and more tax funded programs are used to support illegal aliens.

There's no 2nd or 3rd level thinking involved, no unintended consequences considered. It's a childish way of thinking. It's all emotional feelings of the moment. People who blindly go along with all this, should be ashamed of themselves.

Mark my words. If we go full steam down this path, the really bad times are coming.

pitabread said:

[citation needed]

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Biden did in fact call the president “xenophobic” in a tweet sent on Feb. 1 — the day after the ban — though he did not specifically note the travel restrictions.
https://nypost.com/2020/10/22/did-joe-biden-actually-call-trump-xenophobic/

SummerMadness said:

Why Are Republican Presidents So Bad for the Economy?

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Because supply side economics doesn’t work, and the Republican Party doesn’t know how to tell their base that or free themselves from their billionaire and corporate donors.

SummerMadness said:

Why Are Republican Presidents So Bad for the Economy?

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It is apparent, after reading this NYT opinion piece, that the author is very impressed with Democratic administrations and under-impressed with Republican ones vis-a-vis the economy. It’s also obvious that the author puts prosperity as high on what counts as being “good for the economy.”

But despite his analysis, it’s become increasingly obvious to professional economists that both party administrations are excellent at increasing wealth inequality in the U.S. (the only notable exception to this rule being FDR’s massive taxes on the rich and corporations to fund the New Deal and the war effort). But other than FDR, Democrats and Republicans have both been excellent at fostering wealth inequality and at tolerating a vast impoverished class (roughly 10% of Americans). See, for example, Walter Scheidel’s recent book The Great Leveler: Violence and the History of Inequality from the Stone Age to the Twenty-First Century (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2017).

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Der Alte said:

My bad I missed that. Didn't that -3.7% happen during a pandemic year vwhen businesses were closing down at a rate unseen in my lifetime 8 decades plus? I wonder if there was anything any president would have done to prevent that? Where is that miraculous recovery the DP claims they would make happen?

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Yeah. It's truly too bad he didn't care at all about dealing with the pandemic in meaningful way constantly downplayed it and showed no meaningful leadership while just signing the things his incompentent hires recommended.

I imagine if he had done that he'd definitely still be president.

I do not give too much credibility to any theory that can explain why Republicans have had lower growth in the USA on average. Why? Because the sample size of Presidents is too low. This study has a sample of about 90 years, but less than 20 Presidents. I think the theory that would better explain the ups and downs is the business cycle theory. Take Obama's years for instance. He inherited a very poor economy, given that it was beat down already, his numbers look pretty good. Was it his policies or did he just arrive at a good time in the cycle? I think if you want a more complete look at growth you could examine the 50 states, or even better take a look at growth rates and the freedom index for all countries.

rambot said:

Yeah. It's truly too bad he didn't care at all about dealing with the pandemic in meaningful way constantly downplayed it and showed no meaningful leadership while just signing the things his incompentent hires recommended.
I imagine if he had done that he'd definitely still be president.

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Typical anti-Trump tirade. During all this what was the democratic leadership doing? Spending millions trying to impeach Trump with phony charges, Russian dossier, collusion. That is all the DP did for 4 years try to overturn a legitimately elected president. And even now spending all their efforts trying to impeach an ex-president. While Biden is trying to rule by fiat, executive orders, when he, himself, said that executive orders were tyranny..

Der Alte said:

Typical anti-Trump tirade. During all this what was the democratic leadership doing? Spending millions trying to impeach Trump with phony charges, Russian dossier, collusion. That is all the DP did for 4 years try to overturn a legitimately elected president. And even now spending all their efforts trying to impeach an ex-president. While Biden is trying to rule by fiat, executive orders, when he, himself, said that executive orders were tyranny..

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Covid was killing 4000 people a day on December.

How often did Trump tweet about covid on December? Just to acknowledge it. We can't expect him to show the decorum and empathy necessary to acknowledge the loss of a loved one when he lost the election. The biggest popularity contest in the universe.

Richard T said:

I do not give too much credibility to any theory that can explain why Republicans have had lower growth in the USA on average. Why? Because the sample size of Presidents is too low. This study has a sample of about 90 years, but less than 20 Presidents. I think the theory that would better explain the ups and downs is the business cycle theory. Take Obama's years for instance. He inherited a very poor economy, given that it was beat down already, his numbers look pretty good. Was it his policies or did he just arrive at a good time in the cycle? I think if you want a more complete look at growth you could examine the 50 states, or even better take a look at growth rates and the freedom index for all countries.

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I think the economy has a mind of it's own that is not governed by politics.

Der Alte said:

My bad I missed that. Didn't that -3.7% happen during a pandemic year vwhen businesses were closing down at a rate unseen in my lifetime 8 decades plus?

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And Obama's first year was in the middle of a financial crash of epic proportions. They both had one lousy year due to events largely out of their control. You give them both a mulligan on that one year and they're pretty much equal. 2.5% for Trump, 2.2% for Obama.

SummerMadness said:

Why Are Republican Presidents So Bad for the Economy?

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I don’t think presidential policies result in growing the economy, I think the most a president can do is ruin it. It grew a lot under Bill Clinton because the dot com craze happened during his watch; the economy would have grown no matter who was in office during that time.
Under Bush it continued to grow till we got attacked (911) and the ensuing war cause the economy to crash
Under Obama, it initially continued to crash till bottoming out, then the economy began to recover and eventually got back to where it was, (I think the recovery was due regardless of who would have been in office)
Under Trump it grew to unexpected levels, but I don’t think it had anything to do with his policies, it had more to do with him getting the government out of the way (cutting regulations and taxes) and allowing the economy to grow on it’s own

Because Republican economic policies don't work, and GOP politicians and their voters are willfully ignorant on these issues, as actually learning the facts would shatter their worldview. So they always do everything they can to credit Republican administrations with the economic success of Democratic policies, and blame Democratic administrations for the failures of Republican policies, which is easy since the economy has a strong inertia and doesn't change overnight after an election.

SummerMadness said:

Why Are Republican Presidents So Bad for the Economy?

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Plausible theories? Well...people are still giving credit to Obama's policies for the Trump economic boom. So what if the reason why there has been so much growth for democrats is because they are riding the coat-tails of the Republicans economic policies?

Strathos said:

Because Republican economic policies don't work, and GOP politicians and their voters are willfully ignorant on these issues, as actually learning the facts would shatter their worldview. So they always do everything they can to credit Republican administrations with the economic success of Democratic policies, and blame Democratic administrations for the failures of Republican policies, which is easy since the economy has a strong inertia and doesn't change overnight after an election.

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But...trickle down economics can work...it just hasn't been done right. Lol

Richard T said:

I do not give too much credibility to any theory that can explain why Republicans have had lower growth in the USA on average. Why? Because the sample size of Presidents is too low. This study has a sample of about 90 years, but less than 20 Presidents. I think the theory that would better explain the ups and downs is the business cycle theory. Take Obama's years for instance. He inherited a very poor economy, given that it was beat down already, his numbers look pretty good. Was it his policies or did he just arrive at a good time in the cycle? I think if you want a more complete look at growth you could examine the 50 states, or even better take a look at growth rates and the freedom index for all countries.

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Agreed. Giving a president credit or blame for an economic cycle is not all that fair. Other factors such as FDR got an economic boost from a depression to a war-driven economy, Clinton coming in during the rise of the Internet, Bush getting whammied first by 9/11 and then by the real estate crash does not allow for a good comparison.

If you look at factors for the 2007-8 recession, some of these have their roots in the law of unintended consequences. First the deregulation of the banks and mortgages in the 80s. Then was a real push during the 1990s to loosen the sub-prime mortgage market. Home ownership is seen as a main indicator of economic improvement. Democrats could push for mortgages for lower-income families and Republicans know that home owners lean conservative. Financial institutions knew they could wrap these into packages that no one understood but they could sell them at a premium. However, it took 10-15 years for the hurricane to develop.

Causes of the United States housing bubble - Wikipedia

Strathos said:

So they always do everything they can to credit Republican administrations with the economic success of Democratic policies, and blame Democratic administrations for the failures of Republican policies, which is easy since the economy has a strong inertia and doesn't change overnight after an election.

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That theory is as color blind as its opposite number. It is too simplistic to say that the presidents of either party always turned everything around or that the presidents of the other party always caused economic stagnation or a downturn. There are examples on both sides, and the truth is that other factors, such as who controlled Congress during those time periods or what international developments were occurring, have a lot to do with it.

Speedwell said:

Oh, give it up. The economy didn't suddenly jump back to life at the beginning of the Trump administration. Trump deserves the credit for continuing favorable economic trends begun during Obama's first term. Good for him.

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What specific actions did Obama take that positively effected the economy?
What specific actions did Trump take that positively effected the economy?

TheBear said:

You bet! With the stroke of a pen, Biden killed thousands of jobs on day one. Watch gas and energy prices go up in the next few months. Watch us getting reliant on Middle East oil again. Watch us get involved in more foreign wars again, as a result of that reliance. Watch the entire country exhaust any semblance of fiscal viability, as more and more tax funded programs are used to support illegal aliens.

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What you are doing is considered to be Gish Gallop here with regards to claims here.

pitabread said:

Meanwhile, there is the U.S.'s botched handling of the pandemic on Trump's watch and the economic devastation that hath wrought. Do we want to talk about that?

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Probably not, since both are partisan myths.