Republican Economic Policy

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Leaders of the Republican Party never liked the New Deal, which began in 1933 with the presidency of Franklin Roosevelt, because it shifted wealth, power, and prestige from the business community to the government. President Eisenhower preserved the reforms of the New Deal because he knew they were popular with the voters. This is what he wrote in a letter to his brother:

“Should any political party attempt to abolish social security, unemployment insurance, and eliminate labor laws and farm programs, you would not hear of that party again in our political history. There is a tiny splinter group, of course, that believes you can do these things. Among them are H. L. Hunt (you possibly know his background), a few other Texas oil millionaires, and an occasional politician or business man from other areas.4 Their number is negligible and they are stupid.”

Letter to Edgar Newton Eisenhower

According to Pew Research in 1964 about 75% of Americans trusted the government to do the right thing all or most of the time.

Section 1: Trust in Government 1958-2010

Most Americans saw the government as the organization that had ended the Great Depression, won the Second World War, and was managing an economy in which nearly everyone’s standard of living rose nearly every year.

Barry Goldwater ran against that consensus, and promised to roll back the New Deal reforms. As a result President Johnson won 61% of the popular vote, and the Democrats won two to one majorities in both houses of Congress. In 1964 the Democrats had mandates to preserve the basic reforms of the New Deal, and to avoid war with the Soviet Union.

The Democrats over stepped their mandates by expanding the welfare system and by reducing the likelihood and severity of punishment. This resulted in five years of black ghetto rioting, and a doubling of the crime rate from 1960 to 1969.

United States Crime Rates 1960 t0 2019

The result was a backlash against Democrat policies on race and crime, but not on the reforms of the New Deal. These remained popular.

The GOP has learned that a direct assault on the New Deal will fail. Their new policy is to cut taxes, promising that the tax cuts will generate so much economic growth that they will balance the budget. When this does not happen they use the increases in the national debt for which they are responsible, in an effort to reduce popular middle class entitlements.

When the Second World War ended in 1945 the national debt as a percentage of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) was 114%. In 1980, which was the last full year of President Carter’s presidency this had declined to 32%. During this time the top tax rate never got below 70%, and was often much higher. The per capita national debt as a percentage of gross domestic product declined during the wars in Korea and Vietnam.

U.S. National Debt by Year

http://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-soi/02inpetr.pdf

As a result of Republican tax cuts for the rich, the national debt as a percentage of GDP was 124% in 2021.

U.S. National Debt by Year

The leaders of the Republican Party like a growing national debt because it prevents the Democrats from helping their constituencies. Republicans win elections when white blue collar workers think, “The Democrats never did me any good. At least the Republicans won’t take my guns.”
 
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Rambo.jpeg
 
Republicans win elections when enough people realize the honey-sweet promises of the Dems never materialize in the real world.
You can only promise peace & love while delivering division & strife so long before the sheeple wake up again

Americans really don't want either party in control for very long which is why we religiously go back and forth between them.
 
Leaders of the Republican Party never liked the New Deal, which began in 1933 with the presidency of Franklin Roosevelt, because it shifted wealth, power, and prestige from the business community to the government. President Eisenhower preserved the reforms of the New Deal because he knew they were popular with the voters. This is what he wrote in a letter to his brother:

“Should any political party attempt to abolish social security, unemployment insurance, and eliminate labor laws and farm programs, you would not hear of that party again in our political history. There is a tiny splinter group, of course, that believes you can do these things. Among them are H. L. Hunt (you possibly know his background), a few other Texas oil millionaires, and an occasional politician or business man from other areas.4 Their number is negligible and they are stupid.”

Letter to Edgar Newton Eisenhower

According to Pew Research in 1964 about 75% of Americans trusted the government to do the right thing all or most of the time.

Section 1: Trust in Government 1958-2010

Most Americans saw the government as the organization that had ended the Great Depression, won the Second World War, and was managing an economy in which nearly everyone’s standard of living rose nearly every year.

Barry Goldwater ran against that consensus, and promised to roll back the New Deal reforms. As a result President Johnson won 61% of the popular vote, and the Democrats won two to one majorities in both houses of Congress. In 1964 the Democrats had mandates to preserve the basic reforms of the New Deal, and to avoid war with the Soviet Union.

The Democrats over stepped their mandates by expanding the welfare system and by reducing the likelihood and severity of punishment. This resulted in five years of black ghetto rioting, and a doubling of the crime rate from 1960 to 1969.

United States Crime Rates 1960 t0 2019

The result was a backlash against Democrat policies on race and crime, but not on the reforms of the New Deal. These remained popular.

The GOP has learned that a direct assault on the New Deal will fail. Their new policy is to cut taxes, promising that the tax cuts will generate so much economic growth that they will balance the budget. When this does not happen they use the increases in the national debt for which they are responsible, in an effort to reduce popular middle class entitlements.

When the Second World War ended in 1945 the national debt as a percentage of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) was 114%. In 1980, which was the last full year of President Carter’s presidency this had declined to 32%. During this time the top tax rate never got below 70%, and was often much higher. The per capita national debt as a percentage of gross domestic product declined during the wars in Korea and Vietnam.

U.S. National Debt by Year

http://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-soi/02inpetr.pdf

As a result of Republican tax cuts for the rich, the national debt as a percentage of GDP was 124% in 2021.

U.S. National Debt by Year

The leaders of the Republican Party like a growing national debt because it prevents the Democrats from helping their constituencies. Republicans win elections when white blue collar workers think, “The Democrats never did me any good. At least the Republicans won’t take my guns.”
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Republicans win elections when enough people realize the honey-sweet promises of the Dems never materialize in the real world.
You can only promise peace & love while delivering division & strife so long before the sheeple wake up again
Every item in the domestic budget has a powerful constituency to protect it. The largest and most expensive domestic spending programs are the most popular. The government grew to its present size in response to popular demand.

Republican politicians discover that as soon as they move beyond vague campaign rhetoric about painless, unspecified spending cuts, and began to get specific.
 
Leaders of the Republican Party never liked the New Deal, which began in 1933 with the presidency of Franklin Roosevelt, because it shifted wealth, power, and prestige from the business community to the government. President Eisenhower preserved the reforms of the New Deal because he knew they were popular with the voters. This is what he wrote in a letter to his brother:

“Should any political party attempt to abolish social security, unemployment insurance, and eliminate labor laws and farm programs, you would not hear of that party again in our political history. There is a tiny splinter group, of course, that believes you can do these things. Among them are H. L. Hunt (you possibly know his background), a few other Texas oil millionaires, and an occasional politician or business man from other areas.4 Their number is negligible and they are stupid.”

Letter to Edgar Newton Eisenhower

According to Pew Research in 1964 about 75% of Americans trusted the government to do the right thing all or most of the time.

Section 1: Trust in Government 1958-2010

Most Americans saw the government as the organization that had ended the Great Depression, won the Second World War, and was managing an economy in which nearly everyone’s standard of living rose nearly every year.

Barry Goldwater ran against that consensus, and promised to roll back the New Deal reforms. As a result President Johnson won 61% of the popular vote, and the Democrats won two to one majorities in both houses of Congress. In 1964 the Democrats had mandates to preserve the basic reforms of the New Deal, and to avoid war with the Soviet Union.

The Democrats over stepped their mandates by expanding the welfare system and by reducing the likelihood and severity of punishment. This resulted in five years of black ghetto rioting, and a doubling of the crime rate from 1960 to 1969.

United States Crime Rates 1960 t0 2019

The result was a backlash against Democrat policies on race and crime, but not on the reforms of the New Deal. These remained popular.

The GOP has learned that a direct assault on the New Deal will fail. Their new policy is to cut taxes, promising that the tax cuts will generate so much economic growth that they will balance the budget. When this does not happen they use the increases in the national debt for which they are responsible, in an effort to reduce popular middle class entitlements.

When the Second World War ended in 1945 the national debt as a percentage of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) was 114%. In 1980, which was the last full year of President Carter’s presidency this had declined to 32%. During this time the top tax rate never got below 70%, and was often much higher. The per capita national debt as a percentage of gross domestic product declined during the wars in Korea and Vietnam.

U.S. National Debt by Year

http://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-soi/02inpetr.pdf

As a result of Republican tax cuts for the rich, the national debt as a percentage of GDP was 124% in 2021.

U.S. National Debt by Year

The leaders of the Republican Party like a growing national debt because it prevents the Democrats from helping their constituencies. Republicans win elections when white blue collar workers think, “The Democrats never did me any good. At least the Republicans won’t take my guns.”
To be realistic, when's the last a Republican other than Trump did anything to secure the trust of a Blue Collar Worker?
 
Americans really don't want either party in control for very long which is why we religiously go back and forth between them.
Each party gets in, goes too far and pisses off half the country. Then it gets beat because of it. Then it wonders why.

Neither party learns, because they don't have to. They are incentivized and rewarded to just play to their base.

We need to change the system before it's too damn late.

#ForwardParty
 
To be realistic, when's the last a Republican other than Trump did anything to secure the trust of a Blue Collar Worker?
Ronald Reagan and Donald Trump appealed to white blue collar workers by appealing to nostalgia for the 1950's. The 1950's can be seen as the golden age of the white working class. The Second World War destroyed the factories of our trade revivals while leaving our factories intact. This gave American manufactures a buyers' market for natural resources and a sellers' market for what they manufactured. The Immigration Reform Act of 1924 restricted the number of immigrants who could compete for jobs. The low birth rate during the Great Depression also restricted job applicants until well into the 1960's. Blacks and women were discriminated against in hiring. The reforms of the New Deal of the 1930's guaranteed that much of the economic growth would go to white blue collar workers. The top tax rate rate was much higher, so the tax burden for blue collar workers was lower. One third of the work force was in labor unions. The average house cost twice the average salary. It was possible for a white man with only a high school degree to get a job that enabled him to move to the suburbs, and marry a woman who did not need to work, and who could stay home raising the children.

Neither Reagan nor Trump restored the plush economic times for white blue collar workers. Neither wanted to restore the steeply progressive taxation of the 1950's, and the strong labor unions. Nevertheless, they knew how to appeal emotionally to what really was a good time for white blue collar workers. When Trump's slogan "Make America Great Again" appealed to white blue collar workers the "again" they were thinking of was the 1950's.
 

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