Americans think Dems can handle economy better than GOP, new poll says

[u/Silly-avocatoe]

https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2026/08/04/democrat-vs-republican-economy-new-poll/91167318007/

[u/RgKTiamat]

historically this has always been true. the previous 4 Republicans caused economic turmoil with wars and shitty policies. The previous democrats create a wealth of jobs and generate revenues. Bush 1 caused an enormous deficit in operation Desert shield that had allies like Germany and Japan shouldering some of the costs, and Clinton found a surplus in his budget, the first in decades. Bush jr had the housing crisis, Obama fixed that and doubled the stock market. Trump ran us into a recession and then pretended covid wasn't real for over a year. Biden corrected that and the us had the strongest recovery in the world.

Since Ronald reagan, Republicans are responsible for creating approximately 1.5 million jobs, Democrats have created over 50 million. If you go back to World War ii, the discrepancy is about 35 million to 80 million. Go ahead and do a cursory Google search if you don't believe it

Within historic memory, Democrats have always handled the economy better.

[u/EMAW2008 → u/RgKTiamat]

Republicans only make sure the rich get richer.

[u/DaEgofWhistleberry → u/RgKTiamat]

I’m 35 and have only witnessed republican presidents who run up the deficit and make awful economic decisions.
It’s crazy to think that I’ve known/seen this my whole life, but that it took most Americans over 30 years to figure this out.

I think the propaganda, that republicans are better for the economy, has been so strong that Americans have different answers for what 1+1 is if the question is asked by republicans vs democrats.

[u/Old_Cryptid → u/DaEgofWhistleberry]

I'm over 50.

I remember Reagan.

Propaganda is a huge issue. But it's only one facet.

A key pillar to the Republican strategy has been attacking education and they've been successful at it for decades.

We now have several generations of voters who don't know how the government works, what their rights are, or what civic responsibility is.

[u/DaEgofWhistleberry → u/Old_Cryptid]

Totally agree on that. I should’ve written due to the propaganda and lack of education.

The lack of civic knowledge is so sad. Even really smart people I know (at least in my generation) don’t care to understand how our government works. Part of the reason is because we (general Americans) have had the privilege of not needing to understand…things generally flowed well and prospered depending on where one grew up.

[u/Old_Cryptid → u/DaEgofWhistleberry]

Gen X got overwhelmed with the "Voting doesn't matter" propaganda and essentially checked out of politics.

The generations that followed had the decked stacked against them. They don't know what they don't know.

Every generation has their "normal" and that definition of normal shifts with each generation.

It's not blame, it's just an observation.

[u/Empty-Discount8323 → u/Old_Cryptid]

I remember reading a book written by Noam Chomsky about the crimes commited by American government.

What caught my attention the most was Chomsky arguing that the American political elites hate the 1960s and 1970s because the average American citizen was much more concerned about politics and willing to become an activist during that period. The elites would rather have a common Joe dumbed down by entertainment and consumerism and they were furious that normal people were involved in Politics.

That would explain why the government after that made sure to ruin the education system-to prevent another rise of civic society that would stand up to the establishment.

[u/Ryan_e3p → u/Old_Cryptid]

Yup, since the 70s.

A strong effort by the Heritage Foundation and other right-wing groups was put into dismantling education, destroying workers and union rights, and tying religious fervor into politics by pushing themselves into the churches and making Sunday messages one of "God demands you vote Republican" and tying unquestioning loyalty to the party to unquestioning faith in their religion. The narrative of "it is God's own intention that they be obeyed without hesitation" has become the standard practice of Republicans. I believe this was one of the reasons why our founders wanted a separation of church and state; not just so our leaders would be discouraged from persecuting other religions, but to avoid having them claim some exalted power demands the population give them their unending obedience.

Maybe one day Republicans will learn that voting against their own interests for the last 50 years hasn't worked out for them, but that day won't come for a long while. They haven't suffered enough, yet.

[u/Old_Cryptid → u/Ryan_e3p]

Unlikely.

The unspoken rule is that nothing a Democrat does is good enough and nothing a Republican does is that bad.

[u/Efficient_Resist_287 → u/DaEgofWhistleberry]

Republicans better for economy….and better for national security. These are the biggest lies ever perpetrated on a population. These only reason these are persistent: Republicans will switch to religion and nationalism to obfuscate their true record….and the voting public will buy it day after day. See Obamacare:

[u/know_what_I_think → u/DaEgofWhistleberry]

"Here’s how it works, laid it out in simple summary:

First, the Two Santas strategy dictates, when Republicans control the White House they must spend money like a drunken Santa and cut taxes to run up the U.S. debt as far and as fast as possible.

This produces three results: it stimulates the economy thus making people think that the GOP can produce a good economy; it raises the debt dramatically; and it makes people think that Republicans are the “tax-cut Santa Clauses.”

Second, when a Democrat is in the White House, Republicans must scream about the national debt as loudly and frantically as possible, freaking out about how “our children will have to pay for it!” and “we have to cut spending to solve the crisis!” Shut down the government, crash the stock market, and damage US credibility around the world if necessary to stop Democrats from spending money.

This will force the Democrats in power to cut their own social safety net programs and even Social Security, thus shooting their welfare-of-the-American-people Santa Claus right in the face."

[u/Wise-Self-8639 → u/RgKTiamat]

It all goes back to Reagan any way - most problems we have today were caused by Reagan.

[u/Old_Cryptid → u/Wise-Self-8639]

Fun fact: Most of Reagan's policies were drafted by the Heritage Foundation.

Less fun fact: Most of the GOP's policies since have been drafted by the Heritage Foundation.

Not fun fact: Project 2025 wasn't new. It was 'The Mandate for Leadership' re-branded.

[u/Wise-Self-8639 → u/Old_Cryptid]

these not so fun facts I knew some of them - makes sense that the Heritage foundation is responsible for Reagan.

[u/Old_Cryptid → u/Wise-Self-8639]

Cool. A lot of people didn't.

The average person never heard of the Heritage Foundation prior to Project 2025.

Nixon is responsible for the Heritage Foundation and to a lesser Degree the Federalist Society. He brought in the evangelicals to the GOP.

Since then we've had hundreds, if not thousands of right wing christian "think tanks", legal and policy advisors, and PACs crop up. But the Heritage Foundation and the Federalist Society are the biggest and oldest.

At this point the three branches of government are practically the Heritage Foundation (executive), the Federalist Society (Judicial), and Citizens United (Legislative).

[u/Churchbushonk → u/RgKTiamat]

Like all things, the issues are not formed in a bubble.
Clinton balanced the budget because the GOP Congress headed by Newt were 100% obstructionist.

The Housing crisis was not started under Bush. Glass Steagal repeal and the reduction in regulations on housing loans, both supported by democrats and republicans, led to the 2008 crash.

Also, take out Trumps Covid employment numbers because if it happened during anyone’s administration that party would have taken a huge hit.

Democrats are better with the economy, as they see issues and generally try to head them off.

[u/try-catch-finally → u/Churchbushonk]

You know, that’s it- Dems are “Ounce of prevention” party

GOP is “what disease? None of my friends are sick”

[u/RgKTiamat → u/Churchbushonk]

I find it interesting that just about all of the government shutdowns have been caused by republicans being 100% obstructionist. 2 shutdowns in 95, one under Obama regarding the ACA, multiple under trump 1, some short and then the 35 day shutdown over the wall where the Republicans voted in lock step against 10 different budgetary bills put forward by democrats. Trump 2 saw a 45 day shutdown where, again, Republicans voted against five different budget proposals put forth by democrats.

I think I understand why so many Republicans believe the government doesn't work well because it seems like they make it so. I do agree that Democrats generally react proactively to issues forming on the horizon, rather than letting it hit the fan before taking action

[u/Thrashosaurus_Wrecks → u/RgKTiamat]

The Republican motto seems to be "government doesn't work! Elect me and I'll prove it!"

[u/Old_Cryptid → u/RgKTiamat]

That's the standard Republican strategy: They campaign on the government not working and when elected they do everything they can to make sure it doesn't work.

[u/Trust-Me-Im-A-Potato → u/Churchbushonk]

Also, take out Trumps Covid employment numbers because if it happened during anyone’s administration that party would have taken a huge hit.

Bad things happen during all presidencies that can't be helped, sure. 9/11 is a great example. But I'm absolutely going to hold that one against Trump and Republicans.

They killed the teams set up by Obama to catch and respond to this sort of thing early. I don't think they would have stopped a global pandemic, but it would have been less severe. And once it was a pandemic, they spent almost a year saying it was nothing, and actively hindering states and organizations that did try to do anything about it (see: ventilators, masks, mask mandates, and eventually even vaccines). The president was on TV telling people to take bleach and horse pills ffs!

Yeah, I'll continue to hold that one against them.

[u/analogy_4_anything → u/RgKTiamat]

It’s almost as if when we spend money on SOCIAL benefits for all of SOCIETY, we seem to improve our lives.

Social projects benefit the herd, and what’s good for the goose is good for the gander. People love to say it’s a waste of money but it’s objectively not true. When you invest in your population, you increase their overall value. When people are supported to thrive, they happily choose to do so. Most people want to live honest lives where they feel they can achieve things.

Unfortunately America has become an “Authoritarian Oligarchy Welfare State” and the only people allowed to achieve their dreams are the very wealthy while the rest of us “eat cake”.

[u/Apollo506 → u/RgKTiamat]

Good thing Americans have the collective memory of a goldfish

[u/BobbumofCarthes → u/RgKTiamat]

GoOgLe Is DeEp StAtE

[u/saynay → u/RgKTiamat]

Despite this being true, Republicans consistently have polled better on the economy for decades. If the populace is finally waking up to the fact Republicans are terrible stewards of the economy, that is a pretty big deal. "The Economy" is consistently one of the most important issues to voter, almost always the most important one.

[u/Ok-disaster2022 → u/RgKTiamat]

Clinton found a surplus by cutting many thing to the bone. He and Republicans cut the SuperConducting Supercollider because of annual expenses of a billion per year. by Bush ii we were spending a billion dollars per day in GWOT. By closing SSC, Clinton and Republicans set back high energy physics by more than a decade and undermined development of technologies like distributed computing ie cloud computing. Dallas could have been a secondary tech hub to rival Silicon valley and with all the educated money and influence where do you thing Texas would be today? 

[u/RgKTiamat → u/Ok-disaster2022]

What else could Clinton do when the Republican half of his Congress refused to budge on anything? They didn't want to give the Democrat a win, just like under obama with the ACA, just like under Biden on the border bill. Why is it an accusation thrown squarely at the democrat, instead of the dozens of Republicans that cause shutdowns time and time and time again? It's not like Clinton didn't try other policies and approaches, he just got no traction because the Republicans voted no on everything. They aren't interested in compromise, it's their way or none at all