President Trump can make room in the limelight for the economic successes attributable to his predecessor, and still bask comfortably in his own achievements. He could acknowledge the economic realities of 2008 and recognize, for better or worse, the Obama administration did take action to preserve the banking and automobile industries, and to pave the way for the eventual comebacks of the real estate market and the stock market. He could disagree with the methodology used: taxpayer bailouts, not the free market, saved the banks and car makers; and the rebound in real estate and stocks was painfully slow, driven by artificially low interest rates.
He could then easily pivot to what makes America Great Again, and make the case that his policies were the catalyst to a robust recovery. The progressive left, and its media apparatus, do insist that Trump inherited an economy on the mend. It should be conceded that Obama’s avoidance of economic collapse was ultimately good, despite the incalculable waste and debt resulting from the process.
What Trump needs to contrast is the “quality of recovery” between his policies and Obama’s. Anemic GDP growth and flat wages were the hallmarks of the Obama recovery. These were the two areas Obama’s recovery couldn’t overcome because Obama was ideologically opposed to the solutions: less regulation and lower taxes. We were instead told this was the “new normal” in a global economy.
Once Trump scaled back government regulations, GDP began to grow. Once Trump introduced pro-business tax reform, wages grew. Democrats are unable to effect these two critical fixes to a stagnant economy because they result in smaller government, which is anathema to Democrats.
This is the argument the GOP should be making on the stump to counteract Democratic charges that Trump simply cashed in on Obama’s groundwork for recovery, to benefit the rich. If the GOP is to preserve their majorities through the mid terms, contrasting the economic impact among the electorate between eight years of the Obama recovery, versus what will be nearing the two year mark of Trump policies, should be an easy sell.