For 30 years, Republicans have been bad for the economy.

— George H. W. Bush’s term in office ended in recession.
— The economy boomed under Bill Clinton.
— George W. Bush started his term with an ordinary recession and ended with a huge one.
— The economy grew back steadily under Barack Obama.
— The Obama boom slowed during the first part of Donald’s Trump term.

And of course we’re in economic catastrophe now.

Not coincidentally, standard Republican claims have not held true.

— Deficits have not led to inflation.
— Corporations have not reinvested tax windfalls in their businesses.
— Economic growth has not “trickled down” to the rest of the population.
— Stock market gains have not been coupled to the rest of the economy.

Most fundamentally, Republicans wrongly claim that “making more money available for investment” does in fact cause significantly more investment. (This is how they justify tax cuts for corporations, tax cuts for rich people, removal of regulations, and the like.) But in reality, if that was ever true, it’s been false for decades. Giving corporations more money just increases their dividends, stock buybacks, and/or executive pay, much more than it does their productive business spending. Cutting corporate taxes or lowering regulatory compliance costs, while great for earnings and hence stock prices, does little for the overall economy.

So when Republicans let infrastructure crumble – because they fear that paying workers to fix it would “crowd out” private investment — they’re wrong. When Republicans suppress the wages of our poorest workers — who would surely spend most of that new income and thus stimulate the economy — they’re wrong. And when Republicans resist investing in the education, child care and health care that makes our workers more effective or freer to work, they’re even more in the wrong.

That’s all horrid enough, but Trump-style Republicans add a terrible new error: They oppose immigration. Immigrants are our hardest workers at our worst jobs. Immigrants provide energy and leadership for our greatest entrepreneurial successes. And immigrants comprise many of the engineers and other skilled workers who help our hottest job creating businesses grow. Many of our most productive people are immigrants … and the rest are descended from immigrants of the past.

The argument for the Democratic party is an economic one. They are objectively better for the economy.

republicans would be awesome for the budget if they cut taxes and spending, but they only cut taxes.

the increased revenue and sales taxes do offset the lower earnings somewhat, but not enough to make the budget solvent.

i wish you made this much sense in the basketball forum

tax cuts are cool but we have never tax cut ourselves into prosperity. the GOP approach is tax cuts skewed heavily towards the wealthy.

Republicans are good for the wealthy in the short-term, and they've somehow gotten very good at convincing people who aren't wealthy that being exploited is somehow in their interest.

Bush 41's term ended with a concluded Cold War. Completely understandable as the economy shifts.
Clinton's economy also ended in the dot com bubble bursting.
Bush 43's crash was born in 1913 and encouraged by liberal housing policies.
Obama's recovery was the weakest post-crash recovery in American history, and should have been huge, considering how sharp it was.
The economic catastrophe now has nothing to do with the president.

tax cuts should come in times of economic depression to increase the economy. and should be incrementally decreased as the economy regains strength.

or we could get smart and make a flat tax and stop all the jostling.

we dont have a stimulus right now because nancy pelosi got mad at wolf blitzer and melted down live on cnn.

bold: yes and your proposal is that hard-working immigrants and hard-working minorities should vote for lefty (D) politicians who will tax them hand-over-fist and redistribute this money. not to any noble cause but instead line their own pockets and give it to other privileged lefties who don’t work nearly as hard or sacrifice nearly as much. maybe once in a while the lefty (D) politicians will be benevolent and give us free affordable universal healthcare too (paid for by the taxes of hard-working Americans, including immigrants and minorities)!!!

flat tax is ‘racist’, politicians like the harris/biden ticket and pelosi said so

People need to ask themselves what are the signs of a good economy. Is it GDP? Is it unemployment figures? Is it quality of life? Is it the stock market? A means to satisfy the needs and demands of the people?

The GOP's idea of a strong economy is almost exclusively related to how well the stock market is doing.

What used to set America apart from the rest of the world was an expansive middle class. Also, ease of upward mobility. The ability to find 1 job that pays a living wage, sustaining a family.

Those concepts haven't been around since the 90's. We have an evaporating middle class and it's almost unheard for an upper middle class family to have a single income earner.