2020 Dems Scramble to Find 'Negative Spin' On Trump’s Booming Economy
Democrats put their own narrative on current state of the economy
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As 2020 democratic candidates ramp up their bids for the White House, many are attempting to place a negative spin on the current state of the economy under presdient Donald Trump.
Despite the US economy growing by 2.9 percent in 2018, as per the Bureau of Economic Analysis report, Sens. Kamala Harris and Bernie Sanders and former Rep. Beto O’Rourke have claimed that workers are 'struggling' in a historically low unemployment rate.
But even though figures suggest the economy is poised for the most robust growth in 13 years, Democratic hopefuls having seemingly placed their negative narrative on it.
“[They say] ‘the economy is great, it is doing great for everybody.’ And then you ask them, well, how is that? Well, they’ll point to the stock market. Well, that’s fine if you own stocks. Then you’ll ask them, what’s your other measure? And they’ll talk about well; the unemployment rate is down. That’s fine,” Kamala Harris said.
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“Yeah, well, I’ve been traveling our country. People are working. They’re working two and three jobs to pay the bills. It’s not working for working people,” she added.
Harris has firmly placed her 'Anti Trump' stance in her campaign strategy.
Last month she said that the United States requires a president who knows how to prosecute President Donald Trump.
But aside her from targeting the president, her other talking points are not backed up by data.
According to the Washington Post’s fact checker report, the numbers she uses to substantiate her claims of job decline don't add up.
Out of 156 million people with jobs, 251,000 had two full-time jobs last month.
According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, this is a drop of nearly 100,000 such people compared to last year.
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Bernie Sanders, who is currently ahead of the polls, claimed that “Millions of Americans are forced to work two or three jobs just to survive.”
But even though his claims are less off the mark than Harris, he skews data and ignores that millions of people who have more than one job are mostly working part-time rather than full-time.
Just percent of the total American workforce hold more than one job; something Sanders seemed to avoid saying.
O’Rourke made a mistake similar to Harris and Sanders.
“I have already shared with you that many are working second or third jobs — in fact in Texas, half of your colleagues are working a second or third job just to put food on the table,” he said in Iowa last week.
But according to the fact-checker, O’Rourke's claim was focusing on teachers rather than the general workforce.
The 2020 hopefull seems to use a questionable self-selected survey from Texas that reported 39 percent of teachers to expect to take additional jobs outside the classroom to meet expenses.
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According to a CNN poll:
71% of Americans say the nation's economy is in good shape, the highest share to say so since February 2001, and the best rating during Trump's presidency by two points.
A majority give the President positive reviews for his handling of the nation's economy (51% approve), and his overall approval rating has ticked up to 42% in the new poll.
The 51% who say they disapprove of the President's job performance overall represent the lowest share to do so in CNN polling since the start of his presidency.
Last month, Joe Biden criticized Trump's accelerated job growth and historic low unemployment, saying that America needs a "moral" economy.
The calls for attacking a healthy economy seem to come from the increase of socialist candidates in the Democratic Party.
The Democrats have settled on a consensus that argues that Trump's economic success is not being "shared" with others, another socialist perspective on Trump's success.
If this is what the Democrats are using as the core strategy for 2020, then they may need a rethink.
