To the editor: I take issue with Jonah Goldberg’s assertion that the U.S. economy transcends presidents. What is missing in his analysis is that policies take years to take effect.
Clinton righted the economy and handed it, thriving, to George W. Bush, who left office with the economy in freefall. Obama came to the rescue and even invested in General Motors to save it. Republicans at the time weren’t for making an investment or saving banks. Obama gave Trump a thriving economy.
Trump then handed Biden an economy and policies that were primed for inflation. The signature accomplishment in his first term was tax cuts for the rich. He talked about investment in infrastructure and reforming healthcare, but I guess he only had a “concept of a plan.”
Republican policies have led to greater income inequality, which is a major factor as to why the middle class is hurting. The incoming administration is considering shrinking protections by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. If that happens, it would likely lead to more inequality and pain for the middle class.
Wayne Morgan, Ventura
..
To the editor: The incoming Trump administration’s embrace of cryptocurrencies will certainly test Goldberg’s idea that presidents don’t have much effect on the economy. Memories of the 2007-2008 financial collapse, due in part to exotic investments, come to mind.
Alan Coles, Long Beach
..
To the editor: Donald Trump said in 2004 that the economy does better when Democrats are in charge.
In the “good old days” of our country, there were the very rich and the very poor, until Franklin Delano Roosevelt became the president and created the middle class, which has been the backbone of our economy for decades. Since that time, the Republicans have been working hard to get us back to those “good old days” by giving the rich more tax breaks and increasing taxes on the middle class with Trump’s proposed tariffs.
Americans don’t want to go “back to the future.”
Anastacio Vigil, Santa Monica
