There's a great game you can play called 6 Degrees of Ronald Reagan. Name a modern problem and see how many steps it takes you to get back to Reagan's presidency as the start of it.
I’m telling you the alternative is GOP tax breaks for rich and picking yourself up by your bootstraps with shittier policies for those who need it. 20M would be without healthcare if it were up to the GOP and they are all struggling.
As to 1 and 3, you could say that for any recovery. All recessions are followed by recovery and the fed is a major player in those recoveries. Same with Obama. Same with Biden. If you are going to bash Reagan for deficits, which I do to a degree, you also have to acknowledge the deficit spending plays a role in the recovery. Same for Obama and same for Biden. While a seemingly small thing give Reagan props for letting Volcker do his thing vs jawboning him to drop rates (and of cocurse major props to Carter for appointing him in the first place). Some tax rates and some areas of regulation were arguably excessive, so Reagan deserves some credit for that. I didn’t know Reagan actively took a role in delaying hostage release. That’s news to me.
To blame Biden for inflation but give no credit for the follow up strong economy isn’t particularly balanced.
Republican: " Biden has more.covid deaths than trump!" Also Republicans: " There is no covid related spending in the Biden era"
While virtually no one appreciated his decision at the time and even now very few people outside of maybe a few historians and economists, Carter's decision to appoint Paul Volcker to chair the Fed was the most significant factor in wringing inflation out of the economy and setting the stage for the growth of the '80s for which Reagan has received credit. Carter unlike very few politicians today, Liz Cheney being a notable exception, had the courage to do the right thing even if it would likely mark the end of his political career. By the way the Reagan tax cuts were a major factor in the recovery of the 1981-82 recession. That being said once the economy was in a full recovery mode certainly by late 1983 0r early 1984 taxes should have been raised to reduce the deficit.
I remember that Volcker was surprised he was appointed, he told Carter what he’d do and figured he would be bypassed but Carter appointed him anyway. It arguably could have cost him the election. While Reagan won with a wide margin, it was actually pretty close in polling a few weeks before.
Actually the programs did work. The New Deal programs were put in place in 1933 and 1934, the graphs below speak for themselves. Interestingly when the programs were cut back in 1937 the economy slowed down. I would agree that it didn't really completely recover until WWII.
The “inflation” reduction act did nothing to address inflation and much of the infrastructure bill hasn’t been used for anything. We sadly had to spend to get through Covid, trouble was people spent on many non essentials. The US like its citizens went on a big credit card buying spree. That bill will come due. Ultra low rates via FED fiscal stimulus fueled the growth that’s the biggest reason we came out faster than other countries. Plus not all of the country stayed shutdown for extended periods of time. It’s very multi factorial.
1. Not even a majority of Democrats believe the economy is strong right now, as I've already highlighted. 2. Biden would get a pass for inflation if he didn't prolong the economic shutdown much longer than necessary and blow out the spending after the vaccines had been widely available.
I didn’t see your post, but economics are what they are. I can’t help how people feel. I don’t know exactly how Biden “prolonged the shutdown”. Most such policies were in a state and local level. The delta strain rendered the vaccine only modestly effective at stopping infection spread. Most democratic states did significantly better in terms of Covid deaths per capita, so you can’t just assert that going wide open was the optimal strategy based on economics. The frustrating things about this thread is everybody has their own partisan spin on these things. The presidents of their preferred party caused wonderful things, whereas any success experienced by the non preferred party has a big giant asterisk by it.
Yes, luck plays a big role. Although, Obama didn't inherit a recession engineered on purpose by the Fed. That's a big difference. I didn't. Carter was responsible for greater deregulation than Reagan. Whether Reagan himself did it or one of the people who worked for him did, it's well known that his campaigned worked to delay the hostage release to hurt Carter. It’s All but Settled: The Reagan Campaign Delayed the Release of the Iranian Hostages
OSHA regulation which was overturned in court, endorsing CDC and Fauci recommendations which would then be adopted as state policy, and continuing to give people free shit after the vaccines had been widely available off the top of my head. The OSHA reg attempted to prevent people from working who were not vaccinated, CDC recommendations suggested distancing to the point businesses would have to shut down, and not much point in going back to work when the government is paying you to stay home. I don't care about infection spread when the infection is severe as somewhere between a common cold and a rough flu for most people who were vaccinated, with almost none of the vaccinated dying.
I've discussed the issue with per capita statistics in the past. But the biggest predictor for COVID deaths were probably the following: 1. Vaccination rate 2. Elderly population 3. Population density Regulation primarily mattered only insofar as increasing the vaccination rate. And in the case of New York actually being really stupid and lumping in a bunch of sick elderly people together. And honestly, from a policy perspective, I prefer a state with an open economy where everyone takes their own calculated risk with respect to COVID and the vaccine, even if the end result is more people (almost entirely who are unvaccinated) die, than a state with mandated shutdowns destroying businesses with a lower death rate at the expense of shutdowns of businesses and mandated vaccinations. At least my option gives people freedom and agency. The latter has Uncle Sam running your life and making all of the risk calculations for you, even if they're not in your individual best interest. The shutdowns and free shit made sense before the vaccines were widely available. The risk of serious illness or death decreased so much with the vaccines, keeping things shut down, and continuing to offer free money after that point was plainly bad policy. And that's largely on Joe Biden. He supported the effort and pushed for it from the top.
Biden handlers: “Mr. President, do you know how you forget what your wife said to you five minutes ago ?” Biden: “Uh, roaches, yes.” Handlers: “Well, Americans will probably not remember what you said back in 2020.” https://www.reuters.com/article/idUSKBN2671R8/ https://www.washingtonpost.com/poli...cine-rollout-he-cites-total-covid-death-toll/
