By Lynda Kirkpatrick
The boring dialogue continues to be repeated day after day about what a “great businessman” Donald Trump is. If you believe this, I have some ocean front property in Arizona that I will sell you as cheap as his lies. He has also tried to sell the American people that since he returned to the White House that our economy is “the greatest, the best it has ever been.” This, too, is all in his narcissistic belief that he repeats to convince the world that he is an infallible person. The one whom he is trying to convince the most is himself.
History has proven that our country runs better under a Democratic leadership. While the Republicans roll their eyes, we will prove the point. Our national debt has increased significantly over the last two decades, and that is largely due to the partisan tax cuts passed by Republican presidents. This has disproportionately benefited the wealthiest Americans and big corporations. During the Biden Administration, there were approved large spending packages that were necessary to counteract the effects of the pandemic. By the time Trump took office, the pandemic was under control, yet he had approved more non-pandemic-related increases to our debt. Most of these increases were a large part of his 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, which benefited the wealthiest Americans and large corporations.
We have had eleven recessions in this country (so far) that have occurred in the post-WWII era. Ten of them have occurred under a Republican president.
Republican presidents often inherit a strong economy and then leave their successors with a significantly weaker economy. A good example is President Bill Clinton ended his term as our president with a balanced budget and a strong economy. In three short months, President George Bush had pushed our deficit back into the red. President Barack Obama has the longest run of job creation in modern history. Trump became the first president in modern history to have net job losses in his first term. There were 2.7 million fewer Americans employed when Trump left office during his first term. Under President Biden, the economy grew to the strongest levels in history, passing all G7 countries and exceeding the pre-pandemic by 10%. Where is the difference? The Republicans have prioritized tax cuts that benefit the wealthy and that fail to boost economic growth or pay for themselves. However, Democrats have prioritized investing in the middle class, supporting small businesses, and improving economic resilience after downturns.
Since the early 1980’s job growth has been greater under a Democratic president. Under the last seven presidents, job growth has totaled over 50 million under a Democrat compared to only 17 million under a Republican. Under the Biden administration, the job growth totaled over 16.2 million as the country’s economy has recovered from the pandemic recession. There were 2.7 million fewer Americans employed under the Trump Administration. He is the first president in modern history to net that many job losses.
Also, during the early 1980’s unemployment tends to be lower at the end of a Democratic president. In the last seven presidents, the unemployment rate was lower under one Republican, Ronald Reagan. The unemployment rate has fallen from 6.4% at the start of the Biden Administration to 4.1% in September 2024. At the start of the Trump Administration unemployment rate rose from 4.7% at the start of President Donald Trump’s term to 6.4% when he left office.
Remember the big promise The Donald made to bring overseas jobs back to America? Manufacturing jobs in the United States have suffered over the years. This trend began to improve in 2010, during the Obama Administration. Manufacturing jobs reached their highest level under the Biden Administration. An analysis of the last seven presidential administrations shows that manufacturing job growth has increased more under Democratic presidents while decreasing under all Republican presidents. Most recently, the total number of manufacturing jobs decreased by 178,000 under Trump, while the number increased by 729,000 under President Biden. Thanks to Democratic legislation during the Biden Administration, such as the Inflation Reduction Act and the CHIPS and Science Act, manufacturing construction spending surged to its highest level ever recorded and produced hundreds of thousands of jobs. Sadly, in just a few short months of the Trump Administration, thousands of these jobs have disappeared.
Small businesses are the backbone of rural America. A record of 19 million new business applications were filed under the Biden Administration. This includes a nationwide trend in all fifty states that set a record number of business applications for types of businesses that are likely to employ additional workers. Business applications grew after the pandemic and have continued to increase because of the billions of dollars in investments that have passed under the Biden Administration, such as the American Rescue Plan, Inflation Reduction Act, and Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) and Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR) Extension Act. Again, some of these jobs have been lost due to the Big Beautiful Bill that the Republicans are so proud of.
Our national debt has increased significantly since Trump took office. He is spending taxpayers’ money like a drunk sailor on Saturday night. This is largely due to his extravagant golf trips to his own resorts and the tariffs that have imposed a cost to the consumers. A large part of this debt comes from the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, which benefits the wealthy and large corporations.
The Republican Party claims to be “the party of maximum economic freedom and the prosperity that freedom makes possible.” However, an analysis of economic performance since World War II under Democratic versus Republican presidents strongly suggests that claims that Republicans are better at managing the economy are simply not true. Data show that the economy has performed much better during Democratic administrations. Economic growth, job creation, and industrial production have all been stronger.
In fact, a recent paper by economists Alan Blinder and Mark Watson states: “The superiority of economic performance under Democrats rather than Republicans is nearly ubiquitous; it holds almost regardless of how you define success.” Fact-checking groups have investigated similar statements and have found time and time again that they are true. Moreover, past research shows that stock market returns are also higher under Democrats.
The next time the orange Fuhrer starts to boast about his “great economy, the greatest in the world, the best ever,” just remember that this is also a man who, in the 1980s, amassed casinos, hotels, an airline, and a 282-foot mega yacht. But his gold-plated bubble popped. By June 1990, Trump was unable to make loan payments on his $3.4 billion in outstanding debts. In total, Trump’s businesses filed for bankruptcy six times.
Based on Internal Revenue Service transcripts of Trump’s tax returns from 1985 to 1994, the Times report said that Trump’s core businesses racked up losses of more than a billion dollars in a ten-year period. During 1990 and 1991, Trump’s losses were so large that they “were more than double those of the nearest taxpayers in the I.R.S. information for those years.”
We are watching Trump’s seventh bankruptcy unfold in real time. It’s the United States of America. But don’t worry. Help is on the way. Our next Democratic president will fix it just like they always do.
Lynda Kirkpatrick