Burgess: Democrats are best for the economy
“Which party is best for the economy?” This was the blunt question my high school students asked me one day. It put me on the spot. I knew the answer, but as a teacher you try to give balanced answers to your students’ questions. So I turned the question around and asked them, “How can we find the answer to that?”
That was in the days before computers in the classroom, so we had to do it the old way, using encyclopedias and such. I put the students in groups and asked them to come up with their own answers and report back to the whole class.All the groups came back with the same general conclusions, because the data doesn’t lie and neither did my students. Some of them were surprised.
Democrats? Best for the economy? Yes, they found that to be the case. And even though the work of my students was back in the ‘90’s, things haven’t changed much in terms of economic policies.
We started with the 1920’s, when the modern political parties took on the philosophies they still follow today. In 1925, Republican President Coolidge stated, “The business of America is business.” The Democrats weren’t very different on economics until the 30’s, when Franklin Roosevelt became President during the Great Depression—with 25% of the workers unemployed. So FDR said, “Let’s try something. If that doesn’t work we’ll try something else.”
Meanwhile progressives had long been pushing a workers’ right to join a union, a 40 hour work week, unemployment compensation, and a minimum wage. Roosevelt has his advisors came up with some new ideas as well. They called their plan “The New Deal,” and put people to work building parks, roads, and dams. They created Social Security, used the dams to generate electric power, and more. In four years they cut the unemployment rate from 25% to 13%--and this was before World War II. Rich guys like Henry Ford put their factories back to work and sold more products than ever.
My classes looked at the unemployment rate, “real” wages after inflation, and Gross National Product. GNP and inflation did increase, but in certain time periods wages increased more than inflation—so folks were getting ahead.As we looked at the ‘40’s to 2000, we found that GNP and workers did well under FDR, Truman, Kennedy, Johnson, and Clinton—all Democrats. The minimum wage peaked in Johnson’s years, in terms of what it could buy in “constant dollars.”
During Clinton’s years we saw the last time the lower wage earners gained on the upper earners. Republican Presidents, Ike, Nixon, Reagan, and Bush I & II, saw working folks lose ground as upper levels gained. We also saw Republicans trying to cut or eliminate Social Security. We saw Reagan weaken unions by appointing anti-union people to the Labor Board—and eliminating the Fairness Doctrine in media, so it’s harder to know what’s really going on.But the record is clear. Obama and Biden bailed out the failing auto industry and provided 14 million more Americans with health care. Biden is lowering oil and gas prices—a major factor in the economy overall. He’s putting folks back to work in a variety of jobs. Wages are going up. Folks have more money to spend.
Why consider Presidents’ parties when voting for Congress? Because today’s Republican Party controlling Congress would try to impeach Biden, roll back his programs, cut Social Security, and anything else to help big business. Today’s Republican Party has an unspoken slogan—The business of America is helping big business. The reality is that Democrats help businesses more, and working folks even more.
Jack Burgess is a retired history & government teacher. He’s worked in campaigns of both major political parties.
This article originally appeared on Chillicothe Gazette: Burgess: Democrats are best for the economy
