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Referring to Catherine Rampell’s October 19 comment “A global financial crisis is the GOP’s secret agenda”:
Why do voters think Republicans have done better than Democrats on economic issues? The last five recessions began under Republican administrations: July 1981, July 1990, March 2001, December 2007, and February 2020. One has to go back more than 40 years to President Jimmy Carter to find a recession that began under a Democratic administration, according to the official Record of the National Bureau of Economic Research.
Three of the last five recessions began towards the end of Republican administrations, leaving presidents — Bill Clinton, Barack Obama, and Joe Biden — to deal with the economic damage. I have more faith in the Democrats than in the Republicans to bring about an economic soft landing without a recession next year. Since 1981, the Republicans have truly become the “recession party” and the Democrats the “recovery party.”
Second, the national debt (adjusted for inflation) grew faster under the last four Republican administrations — at a compound annual rate of 10.2 percent during the Reagan administration, 8.2 percent and 5.9 percent during the two Bush administrations and 6, 8 percent during the Trump administration — compared to just 1.6 percent and 4.6 percent during the Clinton and Obama administrations, respectively.
Had these four Republican administrations been as fiscally responsible as their Democratic counterparts, the national debt would have been about 70 percent lower than it is, rising from 31 percent of GDP in 1981 to 37 percent today — rather than the actual 123 percent in fiscal 2021. For For Republicans, it is the height of hypocrisy to resist raising the debt ceiling and present that hostage-taking as a commitment to fiscal restraint when their governments have been in charge through most of the debt-spinning past 40 years.
The author is a retired economist.
Inflation in the United States was 8.2 percent in September. Many people believe that the Democrats are to blame because they are the party in power. It must have been the liberal policies of the Democrats that caused the high inflation. And if the Democrats are voted out and the Republicans take power, the GOP’s conservative policies will solve the problem.
But think of Great Britain. Britain has had a Conservative government for the past 12 years. Inflation in the UK was 10.1 percent in September, even higher than in the United States. Or Poland. Poland has had a conservative government for seven years. Inflation in Poland was 17.2 percent in September. Hungary has had a conservative government for the past 12 years. Inflation in Hungary was 20.1 percent in September. Lithuania has had a conservative government for six years. Inflation in Lithuania was 24.1 percent in September. Turkey has had a conservative government for 20 years. Inflation in Turkey was 83.5 percent in September.
The causes of inflation are much more complex than liberal ideas vs. conservative politics.
Stuart A. Leven, Silver Pen
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