It is challenging to compare two administrations in matters of the economy.
It is especially challenging when comparing eight years of one administration – the Obama administration – that inherited an economy that was experiencing “the worst financial crisis in global history, including the Great Depression,” with nearly four years of the succeeding administration – Trump’s — that was blessed to pick up a strong economy, albeit one that was later affected by Trump’s own mismanagement of the Covid-19 pandemic by focusing on what helps him politically.
It is even more challenging to compare the two in verse form.
Here are the views of our guest voice, a Vietnam veteran and a former Eisenhower/Bush 1 Republican who worked for the Nixon/Ford White House but no longer respects the Republican Party nor Trump.
Is America better off now, in a Recession, than before?
Time to give Trumpism a score
Trump still brags he has the “best economy ever”: after he “inherited an Obama mess”
So how does it compare to Obama’s, once he overcame a real Bush 2 recession mess?
Unemployment had fallen to 4.7% from 10% when Trump came in: today it’s 10.2%: up not less
Trump’s tax cut “would pay for itself”: yet national debt is up $3.3 Trillion, a record high: not less
GDP will grow at 4% or more Trump promised, his pre-recession average was 2.5% not more
Obama’s last average was 2.3%, but Trump’s 2nd quarter 2020 plunged -32.95%: an historic low score
In Obama’s last 3 years he added 8.1 m jobs: Trump’s first 3 was 6.6 m: now -7.8m as the virus has won
Now on cleaning the “swamp” Trump had 6 criminal indictments in his administration: Obama had none
But, hey, let’s look at the stock market: Trump pushed them up like a rocket
Now, indeed, the markets are doing well, for those that own stock, they are feeling swell
It’s forgotten that Obama, from a Bush recession low, had a market that increased 180 per cent
Trump took over a rising economy, cut taxes and regulations, thus a deficit causing incentive was sent
Obama faced his financial melt-down crisis with coordinated advice from experts and actions sound
Trump squandered early virus warnings: “it will just go away” so for his slow reactions, it’s still around
Trump cancelled Obama agreements like trade deals: but trade deficits are up not down: was this sound?
Obama had a healthcare plan: Trump called it bad: he promised a new one: but it’s nowhere around
Trump pledged an anti-immigrant and America First platform with no pleas to unite: divide and fight
The riots we now see on the streets are not Obama ones: it’s Trump’s to own; its division he condones
Crises come and go: how you handle them is what counts: Obama prevailed: Trump failed
Trump’s claims of “success” are false through and through: are we better off? No! Trump must go!