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Date Posted: 08:22:33 11/13/15 Fri
Author: No name
Subject:

For more than 70 years, the economy has done better under Democratic presidents than Republican presidents. The GOP's explanation for this is ... well, there isn't one. They just pretend reality isn't real.

The economic question Republicans face, but can’t answer

It was arguably the most important question asked in any Republican presidential debate so far this year. Gerard Baker, the editor in chief of the Wall Street Journal, presented Carly Fiorina with a line of inquiry she probably wasn’t expecting:

“In seven years under President Obama, the U.S. has added an average of 180,000 jobs a month. Under President Clinton, the economy added about 240,000 jobs a month. Under George W. Bush, it was only 13,000 a month. If you win the nomination, you’ll probably be facing a Democrat named Clinton. How are you going to respond to the claim that Democratic presidents are better at creating jobs than Republicans?”

Fiorina, as is her wont, pretended that reality has no meaning and responded: “Yes, problems have gotten much worse under Democrats”

Uh huh.
So much for reality. Typical Bubble Dweller reply.

Part of the problem is ideological. Republican governing is built on a philosophical foundation that tells GOP policymakers that tax breaks for the wealthy and the elimination of regulations on the private sector will necessarily create broad prosperity. When such policies have failed – and while the opposite policies have succeeded – it’s terribly inconvenient for the party, but it doesn’t seem to produce any real introspection or reevaluation of discredited ideas.

Which is precisely why we now have 15 Republican presidential candidates who not only believe the policies that cut unemployment from 10% to 5% must be forcefully rejected, but who also insist tax breaks for the wealthy and the elimination of regulations on the private sector really will work, if we just keep trying what’s failed and expect a different result.

Consider the series of events: when Clinton’s economic plan was considered in Congress, it received literally zero Republican votes, and GOP lawmakers insisted that Clinton’s reckless approach would cause multiple recessions and widespread despair. Instead, it succeeded beautifully.

When George W. Bush’s economic plan reached Congress, Republicans backed it en masse, certain it would be a wild success. It wasn’t.

In the Obama era, Republicans said the Recovery Act would fail (it succeeded); they said the rescue of the auto industry would fail (it also succeeded); and they said the White House’s domestic policies would crush job growth (they did the opposite).

It’s against this backdrop that GOP candidates are going into the 2016 election cycle effectively saying, “Don’t believe your lying eyes; our agenda is bound to work eventually.”

As an electoral matter, I realize, of course, that many voters have short memories, and the Republicans’ uninterrupted track record of failure won’t necessarily affect their odds of success.

But the Fiorina-Baker exchange was nevertheless one of the more important political moments of the year.

When hard "Got'cha" questions like this come up, Republicans counter by complaining that the debate moderator has a British accent, and what about the real hot topic of the day: Starbucks Holiday Cup colors!!!

what a bunch of fucking clowns

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