In an interview with the Daily Beast's Michael Tomasky, Simon Rosenberg of the liberal think tank NDN, explained that there is statistical proof that Americans prosper under Democratic presidents which should be a major selling point as the November election nears.
As Tomasky notes, the traditional view of the major political parties is that Republicans, as the party of big business -- are stronger on economics, but hard numbers don't show that to be true.
Writing, "Polls typically find that people trust Democrats more on all the things that government does, which stands to reason, but trust Republicans more on handling the economy. Just last week I saw a poll in which respondents rated Biden as better equipped than Trump to handle race relations, the virus response, and two or three other things; but on the economy, Trump bested Biden 51-46," Tomasky then turned to Rosenberg.
According to a presentation Rosenberg has prepared that uses numbers dating back to 1989, "The economy does better—far better—when we have Democratic presidents. In terms of job creation, median income, health care, and yep, even the stock market, the economy does better—the American people do better—under Democratic presidents. By a mile," Tomasky wrote.
“We’ve been making a version of this ‘Dems good, Reps not-so-much’ argument for a few years now, but decided to really lean into this year because the magnitude of Trump’s failures have just made the contrast that much more stark, and even more essential for Democrats to establish,” Rosenberg explained in an interview.
According to a graph showing job creation under recent presidents, "Clinton is the king here, but Obama is a respectable second. Both Bushes have anemic numbers, and Trump’s are a disaster. Now of course Trump’s number may be temporary, as Rosenberg noted when he discussed the presentation with me. Before the pandemic hit, through February of this year, Trump’s jobs number was 6.9 million, which is good. Post-pandemic, it's about a million below that," Tomasky explained.
Writing about the general economy, Tomasky explained, "Clinton of course erased the deficit and gave us a surplus, which Dubya wiped out with two big tax cuts. Obama inherited a disaster from him but lowered the deficit over time, and Trump was already making the deficit worse before the virus hit because of his tax cut."
According to the columnist, few people are aware they are better off under Democrats when it comes to pocketbook issues, and it is up to Democrats to beat the drum loudly.
"Joe Biden needs to tell this story. Every Democrat in the country running for Senate, the House, or a governor’s mansion—hell, all of them, down to county assessors—need to tell this story," he suggested. "It’s going to be hard because Republicans will dispute it with the usual batch of lies, and the press will be skittish because the numbers don’t tell an 'objective' story in which they can blame both sides."
"Democrats, you have a great story to tell. Go tell it," he concluded.
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