Why Do People Believe that Dem's Can Save the Economy?

I am constantly told that the Dem's can handle the economy better than Republicans. Why? What history is there to back this up?

When I was starting high school, it was in the Carter administration. Just for the record Carter was a Dem. We had over 10% unemployment, over 10% inflation, and about 20% interest rates. Today we have 6.1% unemployment, 2-3% inflation, about 3% interest rates. I literally didn't know anyone under 35 years of age who had a full time job. Jobs were that scarce in Michigan, one of the hardest hit states in the Carter years.

What changed from 1978 to 2008? What happened? Ronald Reagan. Just for the record, Reagan was a Republican. Reagan cut taxes and reduced regulation. People had more money in their pockets. They spent more. Jobs started to come back. In fact Reagan's policies were so effective that the whole structure of the economy changed. The prosperity he created is with us to this day in spite of economic blunders by both Bushes and Clinton. In fact the greatest period of prosperity that resulted from Reagan's reforms was from 1992-2006. Clinton only rode the wave of Reagan's economic success. A Republican congress prevented him from screwing it up. In those years, under the leadership of Speaker Gingrich, congress still had a little self discipline.

Electing a Republican will not guarantee good times. Not every Republican knows how to handle the economy. But I've yet to see a Dem who does. There certainly hasn't been Dem who understood economics in my life time. So the majority of Americans might indeed believe that the Dems can handle the economy better than Republicans. All this proves is that majorities can be wrong.