Last updated on July 17th, 2023 at 06:56 pm
President Obama has overcome Republican obstruction and hate to restore American consumer confidence to its highest level since Ronald Reagan was in office.
John Sides of The Washington Post discovered a surging level of consumer optimism about the economy:
As of the first quarter of 2016, even with a slight downturn in the second and third quarters of 2015, consumer sentiment was as positive as it had been since the mid-2000s. It was also as positive as it had been in the mid-1980s during the recovery from the recession of 1981-1982. For example, the value of consumer sentiment at the end of 1983, as Ronald Reagan’s reelection campaign was gearing up, was 91.6. In the first three months of 2015, it was almost exactly the same: 91.5.
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In other words, consumer sentiment is as positive as it was at the beginning of the election year when Reagan argued that it was “Morning in America.â€
President Obama has done something amazing. This president has overcome Republican hate and obstruction to rebuild America’s consumer confidence to it highest level since Reagan. It is another overlooked Obama accomplishment.
Voters really are angry about the economy, but not for the reason that Republicans think. Voters aren’t angry because their taxes are too high, or Obamacare or government is too big.
People are angry because of the inequality that has been created decades of Republican economic policies. People are mad because the rich keep getting richer while the rest of us fall more behind. People are angry because the avenues to advancement are increasingly being cut off from economic advancement.
To hear Republicans tell it, everything on the economic front is gloom and doom, but the Republicans are the source of America’s economic pessimism. President Obama has tried to tackle income inequality, but he has hit a brick wall in the form the Republican-controlled Congress.
Obama’s leadership has overcome bad Republican economic policies and GOP obstruction to restore American optimism after the Great Recession.
Voters don’t need Trump to Make America Great Again because President Barack Obama has already done it.
Jason is the managing editor. He is also a White House Press Pool and a Congressional correspondent for PoliticusUSA. Jason has a Bachelor’s Degree in Political Science. His graduate work focused on public policy, with a specialization in social reform movements.
Awards and Professional Memberships
Member of the Society of Professional Journalists and The American Political Science Association
