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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsRepublicans still can’t explain why their economic ideas keep failing
By Paul Waldman
Watching last nights debate, I experienced a moment of breathless anticipation when one of the moderators, Gerard Baker of the Wall Street Journal, asked Carly Fiorina a version of what I think is the single most important economic question the Republican presidential candidates should have to answer. Lets look at what Baker asked, and then well look at how Id put it, and what the candidates did and didnt say:
As Brian Beutler noted afterward, that is exactly what Democrats will be saying next year. So how did Fiorina respond? She told the story of a woman she met who worries about her economic situation, then said, Yes, problems have gotten much worse under Democrats, which is the opposite of the truth, then went on to decry how government has been crushing the engine of economic growth for a very long time.
In other words, she didnt answer the question. But its essence is this. The Republican candidates all propose variations on the same theme, which is that the way to boost the economy is to cut taxes and scale back government regulation of business. In other words, heres the plan all the Republicans agree on:
1) Cut taxes, particularly for the wealthy.
2) Scale back regulations on business.
3) Watch the economy boom.
The trouble is that weve been testing their theory for some time now, and it isnt holding up well. Thats particularly true of its flip side, which is that tax increases and more regulation inevitably strangle the economy. Barack Obama has increased taxes and regulations, and job growth during his presidency has been solid. Unemployment is now at a mere five percent; you may remember that in 2012, Mitt Romney said his economic plan was so great that he could bring unemployment below six percent by the end of 2016. Its true that wages have been stagnant, but thats a condition that goes back decades. Even if you grant that the economy isnt what wed like it to be right now, the Republican theory predicts that the Obama policies would have produced not an incomplete recovery from the financial collapse, but outright economic disaster. Their theory also says that we should have had a huge economic boom during George W. Bushs administration, and another economic disaster under Bill Clinton, who also raised taxes and increased regulations. None of those things happened.
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https://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/plum-line/wp/2015/11/11/republicans-still-cant-explain-why-their-economic-ideas-keep-failing/
Republicans don't explain. They just repeat the same lies, and are never called on it. At least on TV. And rarely elsewhere.
randys1
(16,286 posts)polls in November to vote for the people who will destroy them
Not because they believe in trickle down or even understand it, but because the people telling them stuff are white and hate Black people and Gay people and Women people the way they do.
Yes, even Carly and Ben will be viable as spreading hatred of all these groups.
There is endless proof that Democratic rule always improves the economy and republican rule always harms it.
But it does not matter.
BlueJazz
(25,348 posts)...work then, didn't work under Ronald Reagan and won't work now or ever.
The definition of republican is doing the same stupid thing over and over and expecting different results.