Trump left the country in such a mess — an uncontrolled pandemic still killing thousands a day; a botched vaccine rollout; 11 million unemployed, tens of thousands of businesses closed or in bankruptcy — and now a Democrat, President Joe Biden, has to engineer a recovery. This is similar to what happened when Barack Obama took office in 2009: A Republican predecessor left the worst economic downturn since the Great Depression. Despite a pledge by Republican Sen. Mitch McConnell to make Obama a “one-term president,” Obama managed to get a major stimulus package approved by Congress, and his administration pretty much saved the U.S. automobile industry. By the end of his second term, Obama had presided over an economy that saw 75 consecutive months of job growth.
Now we have another fine mess — created during a disastrous Republican administration — that a Democrat is expected to fix. Biden’s big plans for recovery have been given the thumbs-up by most analyses, including Moody’s, which sees the possibility of a return to pre-pandemic job levels by the fall of 2022.
But what are we hearing today? The so-called Moderate Republican senators who might have considered endorsing Biden’s $1.9 trillion disaster relief and stimulus are reluctant to support it. Some are calling it dead on arrival.
Look, you all know this by now: Republican policies do not work. Trickle-down tax cuts do not create jobs and do not spread wealth, and here’s an exhaustive study you can read about that from the London School of Economics. (“Major reforms reducing taxes on the rich lead to higher income inequality but do not have any significant effect on economic growth or unemployment.”) Republican presidents, including the sainted Ronald Reagan, have left larger deficits than they started with.
The current Republicans in Congress, who are now resisting Biden’s bold combination of disaster relief and stimulus, eagerly supported Trump’s huge tax cuts for corporations and the rich in 2017. Those tax cuts, through 2025, will add from $1 trillion to the $2 trillion to the national debt, according to the Tax Policy Center, and only a small percentage of companies told the National Association for Business Economics that the tax cuts sparked more hiring.
There is a huge difference between the two parties when it comes to economic policy — and it’s clear when we’re in crisis.
The Democratic Party needs to make the difference clear the rest of the time. It has failed to make the case that, across the country and across all demographics, it cares more about average Americans than the plutocrat-adoring Republicans do. That’s one of the reasons why the Democrats struggle to gain a majority in the Senate and barely have a majority in the House. I don’t see how the country can progress under the present Republican leadership, which embraces the failed policies of the past as well as Trump authoritarianism.
-o-
The Sun’s recent obituary for John Roemer, a Park School teacher and the former director of the American Civil Liberties Union in Maryland, notes his conversion from a conservative trained to despise FDR’s New Deal to a citizen eager to see government that works for the greater good. “I had an animus toward the New Deal. I thought it was a watered-down version of authoritarian socialism,” John said in an interview in 2003. “[The New Dealers] were trying to help people who couldn’t help themselves. At that point I realized: `You know what, John? You’re actually a confirmed liberal.’ I’ve been a confirmed liberal ever since.”
Dan Rodricks 
Republicans have certainly screwed up the economy, particularly if you look at the national debt. The Republican epithet for Democrats is that they “Tax and Spend”. The Republicans Spend and Don’t tax.
When Reagan took office the Republicans cut taxes and increased spending. Thus, during his 8 years in office, the deficit grew by 180% or so. During his sole term, George HW Bush increased the deficit by another 54% or so. In Bill Clinton’s 8 years it went up by 31%. Then came George W. Bush, who was President for 8 years, and he increased the deficit by over 100% again. In his 8 years, Barack Obama increased the deficit by about 70%, some of which was done to save the auto industry. President Trump has increased the national debt by over $7 Trillion. Most of this was during his first 3 years, pre-pandemic. In all, Trump increased it by about 40%.
This concept that we can just print money, spend it, don’t tax, is insanity.
The Biden plan of providing money to “ordinary” citizens is a good idea in general, but could use some fine tuning. For example, his plan would pay some stimulus money to all persons with adjustable gross income of under $300,000. There are citizens who have millions of dollars of assets, but not that much income. Take a retired couple who own a home in Baltimore and one in Florida. They live off social security, stock dividends, and the occasional sale of stocks. Despite their wealth, they get a stimulus check. In addition, some people have actually not been hurt economically by the pandemic. The law should be written so that when 2020 tax returns are filed, the adjusted gross income for 2020 of a taxpayer should be compared to the 2019 adjusted gross income, and those who receive a stimulus payment but who had an increase in income should have to repay to the government the stimulus payment. It is not good policy to make stimulus payments to wealthy people or to people who have not been economically injured by the pandemic.
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With regard to your introductory paragraph – that’s what Trump does! In every sphere he touches, he has the opposite of the Midas touch. We should name it the Trump touch! Everything he touches turns to dross.
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From the Great Depression, to the Great Recession, to Trump’s failed pandemic response, Republican failed political idealisms have directly killed more Americans than all of America’s wars together. Trump left America more divided, sicker and alone in the world. After Trump terrorists attacked the US Capitol to kill the Vice President and overturn US Democracy, most Republicans voted for more violence by not reprimanding his behavior via impeachment. They wheeled out the Golden Trump icon and radical Republicans at CPAC lined up for a picture with the golden Trump God. America will grow and prosper, but not under the leadership of demagogues claiming to be Republicans — they are violent, racist and a few Republican billionaires think they control the whole show in the USA. They are in for a rude awakening, because the political table will turn and one day the billionaire Republican hunters who deny their workers a living wage, healthcare and dignity will become the hunted.
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When a soldier shoots an enemy soldier, that is “directly killed.” When a bomber drops a bomb on a facility and people die, that is directly killed. I think the Trump policies may have indirectly killed some people, and certainly made many, many people’s lives worse, but not very many were directly killed, certainly not more than we have lost in “all of America’s wars” as you posit.
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Hi Dan,
I think you got my point. There was a lot of collateral damage to the US economy under the Trump administration — how does one measure lives lost to poor economic policy a year or two after the fact. Republican economic policies and COVID policies did cause pain and suffering as you imply. Deaths caused by his COVID policies can be more directly measured by comparing USA to Canadian COVID rates of infection/mortality — a good measurement of economic costs of Republican mismanagement. My points about how many people died under Republican policies might be an exaggeration, I just know undue suffering leads to increased mortality rates. I really liked your article and your points are well taken. 👍🤓
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