Former President Barack Obama once again disputed Republicans' attempts to take credit for the US economy's recent strength.
Obama, speaking at a midterm-election rally in Nevada, said Monday that President Donald Trump and the GOP should recognize just how long the current economy recovery has been going on and when the recovery began.
"So by the time I left office, wages were rising, the uninsured rate was falling, poverty was falling, and that's what I handed off to the next guy," Obama said. "So when you hear all this talk about economic miracles right now, remember who started it."
This isn't the first time Obama has weighed in when Trump has taken credit for the strong US economy. During a speech in September, the former president pointed out that the recent stretch of job growth numbers are roughly equal to Obama's last few years in office.
In essence, Obama is arguing that the recent boom is simply a continuation of the long upswing that began when he was in office.
Republicans, by contrast, argue that policies enacted under Trump — specifically deregulatory acts and the GOP tax law — are materially improving the economy over the trend lines from the Obama era.
Obama also zoomed out and pointed to historical trends in economic downturns as further evidence of Democrats supposed advantage on economic issues.
"I do think it's interesting, I just hope people notice that every time there's a pattern where they run things into the ground and we have to come back and clean things up," Obama told a crowd in Nevada.
While it's nearly impossible to pin the blame for various recessions on one president or political party, nine of the 10 official recessions did start while a Republican was in the White House (the lone exception being the 1980 recession that began under Jimmy Carter).
It would be unfair, however, to pin the blame for recessions on newly-elected presidents. For instance, George W. Bush was inaugurated just two months before the recession triggered by the dot-com bubble burst officially began. Additionally, during many of these downturns, Congress was at least partly controlled by Democrats.
But again, a president's policies can contribute to a downturn, but a variety of factors — monetary policy, international events, credit growth, and a slew of other issues — help contribute to the onset of a recession.
Jushak on October 23rd, 2018 at 04:48 UTC »
Well, yeah. It's pretty obvious.
Democrat president's term is done, Republican takes over. Republican takes credit for good economy, drives it down during their term(s). Big spending on military, big cuts for the rich and the corporations are made. As the Republican term progresses and the economy gets worse and the government runs on red due to military spending, big cuts on any welfare etc. are made "to save money". Finally Republican's term is over. The economy is a mess. Democrat president takes over, Republicans blame the bad economy on Democrats. The lack of funds due to bad economy is constantly used as a political weapon to bludgeon down any social progress. Republicans dig up their "fiscally conservative" rhetoric after ignoring it so long during their presidential term. Democrat president slowly cleans up the mess left by Republicans, while their political agenda is hampered by Republicans all the way. Start the cycle again.Rappelling_Rapunzel on October 23rd, 2018 at 00:42 UTC »
In a 2004 interview, Trump told CNN's Wolf Blitzer: "In many cases, I probably identify more as Democrat," explaining: "It just seems that the economy does better under the Democrats than the Republicans. Now, it shouldn't be that way. But if you go back, I mean it just seems that the economy does better under the Democrats [...] But certainly we had some very good economies under Democrats, as well as Republicans. But we've had some pretty bad disaster under the Republicans."
The-Autarkh on October 22nd, 2018 at 23:40 UTC »