Why Isn't This Economic News Part of the Daily News Cycle?

It's the economy, stupid.  

The economy was a big part of politics during all of the time I was growing up.  I can remember in most of the social studies classes I had in high school and college, discussions about deficit spending, the national debt, unemployment, the value of the dollar, inflation, and all of those things and the almost immediate effect economic news had on polling data for political candidates.  Inflation was the problem that brought the Carter administration to a close, and unemployment and a recession brought the George H.W. Bush administration to an end.  

But, toward the end of the 1990's, a social agenda focused on using politics for culture wars instead of for what government under our constitution is supposed to do, has replaced the economy. I'm not surprised, since all of the measurements that conservatives once considered marks of success, including reducing the deficit, lowering taxes, using interest rates to regulate economic trends, and creating jobs in the private sector, are all Democratic Presidential achievements.  Among their own, not so much.  

The Most Economically Beneficial Presidency in Five Decades

I found this editorial by Edwin Eisendrath on the website of WCPT radio in Chicago, and I guess the media doesn't pay much attention to this stuff any more, either that, or their audience isn't interested.  The Biden Administration has been hugely successful from an economic perspective, as much or more than any prior administration in five decades or more.  About six paragraphs down is this list of economic achievements under Joe Biden's Presidency.  It's quite a contrast to the two prior Republican Presidents whose laissez-faire approach to the economy produced recessions, unemployment and soaring debt.  

Here's the list: 

• GDP growth at 5.7% in 2021 is the best since 1984.  (And this explains, in part, the inflation we are experiencing.) 
• Unemployment fell to its lowest level in 50 years. 
• 13 million private sector jobs have been created since 2020. 
• Average hourly earnings have increased 5.2% through May of this year.  
• The American rescue plan was incredibly successful in getting the US out of the pandemic and in jump-starting the economy.  This is what government is supposed to do.  
• The Infrastructure and Jobs act has created the biggest boost in building trades in decades, and will make tech infrastructure what it should be in the wealthiest country on earth. 
• The Inflation Reduction Act and Chips and Science Act resulted in massive investments in green technology and created thousands of jobs in high tech manufacturing.
• The deficit is coming down because of economic growth!  

And Republicans don't want you to know that Biden's record on border enforcement is twice as good as Trump's, or Dubya's, both of whom let more illegals into the United States during their terms, by far, than Clinton, Obama or Biden.  And after all those promises to coal miners in 2016, under Trump, coal production dropped 27% and the number of coal-related jobs dropped a whopping 17%, the biggest decline since the depression.  That sector of the energy economy isn't coming back, but the Biden administration has put resources into helping those employed in that industry find other jobs with livable wages.

Economically, all we got from Trump was nothing as far as I'm concerned.  The wealthiest of us got tax cuts to shield them from the effects of the pandemic and insulate them from any economic difficulties.  The average American wage earner's taxes went up under Trump, just enough to cut into any benefit their wages might have provided against inflation that was only moderated by the effects of the COVID pandemic on business.

So if I'm a conservative Republican, claiming that the economy is the most pressing issue on my ballot, and I looked at this list, it would be a straight arrow to the ballot box to re-elect the politician whose administration led Congress to pass the legislation that brought all of this about.  There is not anything here that, if I were of that perspective, I could not support.  Letting control issues centered on controlling personal morality and limiting individual freedom should be the last thing I'd want to do.  

Is that too simplified?  Because that's really the bottom line here.  We have, in the Presidency, an experienced politician who has gathered together the best of the best when it comes to advisors, having had a front seat in the previous Democratic President's administration to see the talent, intelligence and experience he could have in his own.  No wonder Republicans make no sense and offer nothing of substance to the American people.  They aren't thinking straight.  They've done exactly what George Washington warned us not to do, in letting their political bias over-ride common sense and their own principles.  They're all about the power, and not about the people and that's why they must be given the kind of political beating that will knock them back into their senses. 

Gifts From the Last Three Republican Presidents 

A little online searching brought me to the results of the economic policies of the last three Republican Presidents: 

• Between the three of them, they are responsible for 80% of the tax increases levied since 1988. 
• They are responsible for more than 90% of the increase in the national debt.  The most recent Republican President, Trump, can account for more than three fourths of that.  If you count all of the money spend on the Afghanistan war, even through the Obama administration, that percentage goes up by 5% more.  
• All of them were in office when unemployment soared, with two of the three seeing levels exceed 10%.  All of them experienced a net loss of private sector jobs during their administration, the largest drop being under Dubya, with Trump in second place.  
• Collectively, their economic growth is in negative numbers, Dubya's at -6% being the worst but Trump at -3.7%.  
• Of course, with those dismal figures, inflation should be under control, right?  But some segments of the economy, including prices for things like utilities and home prices soared under Trump.                                                                            

 I'm putting this out there because we need to see more of this now.  It will get some comments, of course, and I can't wait to see reactions on social media.  If it really is about the economy, then Republicans are big losers.  That's why their narrative has shifted to controlling other people's lives.  They are better suited for that, anyway.