Very Historically llliterate House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) Blames Dems for Economic Downturns, Ignores That 9 of the Last 10 Recessions Began Under Republican Presidents
February 10th 2020
Kevin McCarthy (Office of the House Republican Leader)
By Aldous J Pennyfarthing (of the Daily Kos community)
House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy is not a fan of history, apparently. At least not when history belies the myths Republicans stick in their constituents’ mouths like lightly drugged binkies whenever they want to pretend our country’s economy wasn’t saved by a black man who actually understands trivial matters like economics, foreign policy, diplomacy, and not dribbling a painter’s palette worth of McNugget sauces down the front of one’s torso.
Of course, Republicans are particularly bad at grasping recent economic history—so much so that they’ve almost completely forgotten who was president between Bill Clinton and Barack Obama. The name is on the tip of their tongues, but when the Republican National Convention comes along every four years, they somehow can’t seem to get it out.
That’s why they need to be reminded of their incompetence at every turn, and tweets like this are a great start:
Honestly, this pervasive, lingering myth that Republicans are great for the economy and Democrats are poison never ceases to baffle me.
The opposite is true. On every important measure — GDP growth, job creation, deficit spending, business investment growth — Democrats beat Republicans’ brains out, and they have for decades.
This only makes sense, of course. Democrats want to invest broadly in our economy, whereas Republicans love to balloon the deficit and hand fistfuls of cash to obscenely wealthy plutocrats just because.
So what would a “socialist Democrat” do? Probably invest in infrastructure and a forward-looking green economy; unshackle financially strapped workers who are burdened with crushing student loan debt; free would-be entrepreneurs who are scared to leave their jobs because they can’t lose their insurance; put more money in the hands of poor and middle class workers, who would be more apt to spend it; and protect our air, water, and natural resources, thus ensuring a sustainable future economy.
What won’t they do? Take credit for the previous president’s economy, like McCarthy just did. Why? There’s still a very good chance we’ll be in a recession by January 2021, because you could replace Donald Trump’s brain with a 9-volt battery plugged into a pimento loaf and very few people would be able to tell the difference.
Also, on economic policy, Trump has pretty faithfully followed the script of our last Republican president—whoever that might be—and that dude left the economy in a smoldering Yucatan crater before skipping off to paint cat pictures or some shit.
Which begs the question: Given all of this thoroughly documented historical data, why would anyone trust a Republican with the economy ever again?
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Posted with permission