Great Recession

Republicans, Democrats, And The Economy: The Truth!

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Republicans for generations have claimed they are the “better” political party for the American economy, than are the opposition Democrats!

This is a bald faced lie, but gullible people keep on “drinking the KoolAid”!

The Republican party continues to call for the demise of Social Security (passed under Franklin D. Roosevelt); Medicare and Medicaid (passed under Lyndon B. Johnson); and in the past 12 years for repealing the Affordable Care Act (ObamaCare).

Right wingers condemn the Affordable Care Act because it was an African American president who promoted this expansion of health care that was first promoted as a basic right by Republican President Theodore Roosevelt as the Bull Moose Progressive Party nominee for President in 1912.

It took a generation for the cousin of TR to move toward social justice; and 50 years for Johnson to promote the health care initiatives of Harry Truman; and another nearly 50 years for Barack Obama to go beyond Medicare and Medicaid. Note that all of the Presidents engaged in this quest, except for Theodore Roosevelt, were Democrats.

But beyond that, all of the economic downturns since 1953 took place under Republican Presidents, with the exception of the brief recession under Democratic President Jimmy Carter in 1980, which led to his defeat for a second term. But there were three recessions under Dwight D. Eisenhower; one under Richard Nixon and one shared by Nixon and Gerald Ford; one under Ronald Reagan; one under George H. W. Bush; and two under George W. Bush. This list included the highest unemployment rate since the Great Depression under Reagan and the “Great Recession” under George W. Bush, which set back the economy for years. Additionally, the COVID 19 Pandemic led to an economic crisis under Donald Trump.

The latest economic report shows the lowest peacetime unemployment rate since World War II; the unemployment rate lowest since 1969 at 3.4 percent; a tremendous economic recovery since the COVID 19 Pandemic; 33.8 million jobs over the sixteen years of Bill Clinton and Barack Obama; 12.1 million jobs in two years of Joe Biden, an all time high; while only 1.9 million jobs under Republican Presidents George H. W. Bush, George W. Bush, and Donald Trump were created for 16 years; and with Donald Trump the first President since Herbert Hoover to have a net loss of jobs!

Also, Gross Domestic Product has been 3.4 percent under Joe Biden, as compared to 1 percent under Trump; and more jobs created under two years of Biden than any President in four years! And the uninsured rate on health care is down to 8 percent due to Medicare, Medicaid and the Affordable Care Act (ObamaCare) than it has ever been, and if Texas and Florida had agreed to expansion of Medicaid, it would be MUCH lower! Additionally, more businesses are being formed than ever before, and wage growth, while not keeping up with inflation, has been rapidly expanding.

Once the inflation struggle, affected by the Russia-Ukraine War and the machinations of oil nations, are dealt with, inflation, already coming down, will be mastered. But no President can alone prevent or provoke inflation!

So the Democrats can be proud of their accomplishments economically over the long haul, and it is time for the myth of Republican “prosperity” to be laid to rest as yet another myth that needs to be retired!

The Republican Party is there for the wealthy, the privileged, and the bigots who promote white supremacy, racism, nativism, and misogyny, and with the political corruption under Richard Nixon, Ronald Reagan, George W. Bush and Donald Trump being massive, while Democratic Presidents have NOT presided over corruption at a notable level, but rather mostly manufactured by Republican propagandists!

Republicans are “better” in promoting propaganda, while Democrats are far better in accomplishment of improving economic opportunity for the American people!

Joe Biden Arguably Has Faced The Worst Set Of Crises Other Than Lincoln And FDR!

Ronald 12 Comments

Abraham Lincoln faced the breakup of the Union and the Civil War in his Presidency from 1861-1865.

Franklin D. Roosevelt faced the Great Depression, the growing threat of Fascism and Nazism, and World War II, from 1933-1945.

Other than Lincoln and FDR, the question arises which other Presidents faced crises on a level as dangerous and challenging as those two Presidents.

One could say George Washington facing the challenge of making the Constitution work, and the nation able to survive as a republic from 1789-1797.

One could say Harry Truman, facing the challenge of sudden elevation to the Presidency in a time when World War II was not yet resolved, and having to deal with the threat of the Soviet Union during the Cold War years from 1945-1953.

One could say John F. Kennedy, facing the threat of the Soviet Union, including the Berlin Crisis and the Cuban Missile Crisis, which dominated his time in the Presidency, from 1961-1963.

One could say George W. Bush, facing the challenge of the terrorist attack on September 11, 2001, and the dual wars fought during his Presidency in Afghanistan and Iraq, and the Great Recession which developed in his last year in office, from 2001-2009.

One could also say Barack Obama, facing the challenge of the Great Recession, the worst economic downturn since the 1930s, and the constant domestic resistance from the right wing Tea Party Movement, and the growing extremism of the Republican Party, from 2009-2017.

But one could also argue that Joe Biden, facing the COVID 19 Pandemic; the growing epidemic of mass murders by firearms by domestic terrorists and mentally disturbed people; and the threat of nuclear war in the midst of the greatest foreign policy crisis (The Russia-Ukraine War) since the Cuban Missile Crisis of 1962, is the greatest challenge and crisis other than Lincoln and FDR!

The American Rescue Plan Act Of 2021 Hearkening Back To Strong Actions Of FDR And The New Deal!

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The American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 is seen by many observers as hearkening back to the strong actions of Franklin D. Roosevelt and the New Deal nine decades ago.

For sure, the present COVID 19 Pandemic and the economic collapse that has occurred due to this crisis, has created the most dangerous and worrisome moment in American government since the Great Depression of the 1930s.

Before this, the Great Recession of 2008-2009 was the worst economic moment, with Barack Obama accomplishing the greatest economic revival over his eight years, that we have seen in American history.

But now, his Vice President, Joe Biden, is moving ahead to promote structural changes in the American economy and work to promote a major attack on poverty, unseen since the Great Society War On Poverty of Lyndon B. Johnson, six decades ago!

The Donald Trump Base Is Withering Rapidly

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As the election day ticks down to 22 days today, it is clear that the Donald Trump base of about 35-40 percent is withering rapidly.

The COVID 19 Pandemic and the outrageously poor reaction of Donald Trump and Mike Pence to that disaster is turning senior citizens and even white working class men away from Donald Trump.

The fact that he has called his followers “disgusting”, and glad he does not have to shake their hands, is being noted by many former Trump supporters who now realize Trump would not want them at his Mar A Lago residence in Florida.

Trump is massively losing among those of his former supporters who have a brain and intelligence, morality, and ethics, and see what a disgusting human being he is!

More Trump backers in 2016 have seen how dangerous and unstable he is, and how his narcissism has led him to endanger American foreign policy, and side with authoritarian leaders, including Vladimir Putin, Kim Jong Un, and Mohammed bin Salman, among others.

Many conservatives are realizing that Trump is not a conservative, and many former Republican officeholders have repudiated him as a destroyer of Republican Party history and values.

Trump has made no effort to expand his receding base, and every poll, even on Fox News Channel, shows Joe Biden far ahead in “swing states”, and competing even in states that by all rights should not be contestable, including Georgia, Texas, Ohio, Iowa, and Arizona.

This is not an issue of whether Joe Biden is a perfect candidate, as no such person exists, but rather whether he represents the interests and concerns of average Americans, whose families have struggled and continue to struggle.

Joe Biden comes from a working class background, and has always had the traits needed for a President—intelligence, knowledge, experience, compassion, empathy, decency, morals, ethics, humanity, and a magnificent record of service unmatched in American history.

The nation is realizing Joe Biden is the right person to deal with the worst conditions we have seen since the Great Depression, far greater than the Great Recession of a decade ago. Only his approach to the future, with Kamala Harris by his side, can help the nation to recover from the COVID 19 Pandemic, the economic calamity, and the racial divide that has been encouraged by the Trump Administration.

America On The Verge Of A Second “Great Depression”, All Caused By Donald Trump’s Ignorance, Stupidity, And Corruption!

Ronald 19 Comments

It is hard to believe, but America is on the verge of a Second “Great Depression”, all caused by Donald Trump’s ignorance and stupidity!

America had 123 million population in 1930, as the Great Depression under Herbert Hoover began.

Now in 2020, it is 330 million, so more than 200 million people higher, about 270 percent higher.

This coming Great Depression is likely to last as long as the first Great Depression, a decade or more, as even the Great Recession of 2008 continued to reverberate for at least another five years after that.

We already have poverty and deprivation much too prevalent BEFORE this event, and now it will get much worse!

The possibility of widespread violence and bloodshed, in a population much more diverse than it was in 1930, and with the much greater prevalence of firearms, at least equal to the population numbers, is a totally terrifying prospect!

And to learn that the wealthy want ever more tax cuts, as their greed and selfishness continues to grow, is totally outrageous. They need to give up much of the Trump, Bush II, and Reagan tax cuts they gained undeservedly in the past four decades, while the middle class deteriorated, and the the number of poor, homeless, and hungry people escalated!

The stupidity and bias of millions of Americans who thought Donald Trump was a savior, and the involvement of Fox News Channel, Conservative Talk Radio, and the Evangelical Christian right pastors and ministers in backing the corruption and venality of Donald Trump is infuriating! His corrupt collaborators in Congress and the judiciary is also a total repudiation of the American people and their welfare!

There has to be a place in Hell for all of these perpetrators who have no ethics, morals, conscience, or scruples!

The Self Styled “War Time” President: Greatest Economic Collapse Since 1929, And 32 Percent Drop In Less Than A Month, Back To When Barack Obama Left Office!

Ronald 18 Comments

So here we are in mid March, less than a month after the all time high on the Stock Market, and we have just witnessed the greatest collapse since 1929, a 32 percent drop in the Dow Jones Industrial Average and other measurements of the stock market.

So now we are back to what the stock market was on the day that Barack Obama left office, after the greatest economic recovery in American history, greater than Franklin D. Roosevelt, who had to count on World War II to end the Great Depression totally!

Obama presided over a 250 percent increase in the stock market, and an unemployment rate left to him by George W. Bush and the Great Recession of 10 percent unemployment, which was lowered to 4.7 percent when he left office.

But of course, Donald Trump would never give credit to the “black man” for anything, so it is just desserts that his raving about the great performance on the stock market and in the unemployment rate, added on to what Obama had accomplished, is now totally gone!

And now, Donald Trump has the gall and nerve to call himself a “wartime President”, when he evaded the military draft with a fake medical letter claiming he had “bone spurs”>

This was Trump’s major argument for his reelection–the “great, fantastic” economy, and now it is gone! Meanwhile, Trump has done tremendous damage in a multitude of ways, and he is insured of being the absolutely worst President in American history!

There are now projections that the unemployment rate will skyrocket, maybe to an unheard of 20 percent, which would be by far the worst since the 1930s!

If Trump had any principles and decency, he would resign today as a total failure, and the only reason he will not do so is that he would face prosecution for his crimes, and hopes to avoid that.

America must defeat Trump, and send him as an indicted felon into a court of law, with just desserts being imprisonment for the rest of his natural life, but not stop there, but also go after his children and son in law, and all of the crooked people who worked for him and brought about the disaster, ongoing, of the Trump Presidency!

CoronaVirus Crisis Will Bring Donald Trump Down!

Ronald 35 Comments

The ultimate job of any President of the United States is to promote the safety and security of the American people, and on that basis, Donald Trump is failing miserably in dealing with the growing CoronaVirus Crisis.

Clearly, this is a public health crisis of massive proportions, and all Americans would wish that Donald Trump was capable of handling a crisis that may stand out as one of the greatest tragedies in all of American history.

But Trump is playing politics, concerned more with his reelection, than giving full authority to medical and health experts, and this is proved by his appointment of Vice President Mike Pence, who is anti science and just prays a lot to God, to lead the effort to quell the crisis.

It seems clear that this crisis will not be handled in a proper manner, whatever that is, and that Donald Trump will pay the price in being defeated for reelection.

Not only is there likelihood of massive death totals, but also the economy is clearly going into a tailspin, and the next President will likely face depression conditions unseen since 2008 and the Great Recession.

This blogger and author hopes he is wrong, but this is clearly the most horrifying health crisis faced since the Spanish Flu epidemic of a century ago!

Donald Trump Does The Unforgivable: Attacks Joe Biden And Barack Obama On Foreign Soil, And Lies About The Obama-Biden Economic Record

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Donald Trump did the unforgivable by attacking former Vice President Joe Biden and former President Barack Obama on foreign soil, while in Japan this past weekend.

It is a known rule that no President deals with domestic politics while overseas, and no President embarrasses his host by putting them on the spot as he criticizes political rivals.

But this is Donald Trump, who does not believe in any rules, regulations, or common decency.

Calling Biden a low IQ individual, agreeing with totalitarian dictator Kim Jong Un of North Korea, and claiming that both Obama and Biden presided over a disastrous administration in every way, including the economy, is the continuation of an attack on opponents that began with John McCain. It has now included everyone imaginable, and not just individuals that are well known, but also victims as in Puerto Rico after the hurricane, and groups of vulnerable people, such as refugees, gays and lesbians, transgender people, disabled people, and so many more.

The massive lie about Obama, Biden, and the economy is beyond belief, when the facts are that Obama presided over the greatest economic recovery in American history, greater than Franklin D. Roosevelt before World War II resolved the Great Depression.

From 10 percent unemployment, and the worst economic conditions in 70 years in 2009, inheriting the Great Recession under George W. Bush, to Obama and Biden leaving office in January 2017 with unemployment under 5 percent, we have now seen more than eight years of constant economic growth, an all time record. The continuation of economic growth under Donald Trump would have continued if Hillary Clinton was in the White House.

The stock market also recovered more than 250 percent from what it was when Obama-Biden came in during 2009 until the beginning of 2017. And all this was done without being engaged in a major war.

Trump can lie, and his minions can believe his use of the Big Lie technique of Adolf Hitler, but “the truth shall set us free”, and history will record Barack Obama and Joe Biden for their economic accomplishments.

Inspiring January 20s—1961 And 2009, And Then Depressing January 20s, 2017 And Today

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Today is commemorated as the Presidential Inauguration Day every four years, since the passage and ratification of the 20th Amendment in 1933, changing the date from the original March 4 from 1789 to 1933, to the new date starting in 1937 and every fourth year after.

The history of January 20 is one of two particularly inspiring Inauguration Days, those of John F. Kennedy in 1961, with his soaring oratory, and Barack Obama in 2009, with the largest Inauguration crowd in American history, and with this author and blogger in attendance with his older son, witnessing the historic event.

Kennedy was the youngest elected President, and the first and only Catholic President, and Obama was the first and only mixed race African American President, and both appealed to the highest ideals of the American spirit.

Already, both are rated in the top third or better of our Presidents, and both will always excite and inspire our image of what America could be.

But sadly, now we are in a crisis, which makes Richard Nixon look better, something thought to be impossible after the Watergate Scandal. We never thought we could have a worse and more corrupt President than Nixon, who with his manifest shortcomings actually had some positive contributions.

But with Donald Trump, we have a wrecking ball out to destroy American domestic policies since Theodore Roosevelt onward, and American foreign policies since Harry Truman onward.

We have a President who has collaborated and colluded with the Russian government of Vladimir Putin, and yet we have one third to 40 percent of the nation totally in delusion, and proving that as PT Barnum said long ago, “There’s a sucker born every minute!” People who should know better have their heads in the sand, as if they are ostriches, and nothing will convince this ill informed and morally deficient portion of the population to see the reality of the disaster we face.

Donald Trump gave a bitter, divisive Inaugural Address two years ago today, and has not stopped from his mission of total destruction, and division of our population with his insults, his racism, his nativism, his misogyny, his repudiation of our long time allies, and his promotion of the destruction of the environment and the concept of civil rights and civil liberties in our Constitution and Bill of Rights.

January 20, 2017, was not a day to celebrate, and January 20, 2019 is not either, as the Federal Government Shutdown continues, with the long range goal of the undermining of the Federal government agencies, and the destruction of the lives of millions of dedicated workers, and the collapse of the American economy, as we hurtle toward another Great Recession or maybe even another Great Depression.

It is impossible to have hope that we can survive this Trump disaster without long range damage and harm that will permanently undermine the future of American democracy.

The Facts About Barack Obama’s Achievements On The Economy , Corruption, And Health Care, As Compared To Donald Trump’s Record

Ronald 9 Comments

With the Midterm Elections of 2018 only ten days away, we are now in the season of lying about Barack Obama’s record by Republicans, who act as if the 44th President accomplished nothing while in office, and was an abject failure.

Somehow, the experts see it differently, as the C Span Poll of Historians in 2017 put Obama 12th of all Presidents, and the American Political Science Association poll of 2018 puts Obama as 8th among all Presidents.

Obama brought about the greatest economic revival from a economic collapse in US History, far better than Franklin D. Roosevelt and the ending of the Great Depression, only brought about ultimate entrance into World War II, while Obama brought about an end to the Great Recession without a major war. The stock market nearly tripled under him, and the unemployment rate went from 10 percent when George W. Bush left, to under 5 percent when Obama left office. But Donald Trump tries to claim that magic took place when he came into office, and that the present booming economy is all his doing, ignoring the recovery under his predecessor. It is clear that the economy’s improvement would have been much the same under Hillary Clinton had she won the Electoral College and become our President.

There was no corruption under Barack Obama of note, and no one was indicted or convicted, while the record of the George W. Bush administration had quite a lot of corruption, but already Donald Trump has seen more corruption in less than two years than Bush had in eight years. Trump’s cabinet and other advisers have demonstrated more corruption than any in American history. and so many people have been indicted or pleading guilty in the probe on Russian collusion.

Obama also promoted the protection of preexisting conditions under the Affordable Care Act or ObamaCare, which the Republicans have tried to destroy 70 times, although now all candidates for reelection are claiming otherwise, but a pure lie. Donald Trump has no concern about health care, and instead brags about the massive tax cut to the wealthy, which is leading to Republicans claiming that not only must ObamaCare be repealed, but also there is a need for massive cuts in Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid.

Trump supporters who believe any of the propaganda coming from Trump and Republicans running for reelection, are truly delusional, and fail to understand that the facts are very different from the myths being perpetrated by Republicans who hope to keep control of Congress after the elections in less than two weeks.