Confidence in the economy is near an all-time high as we head into the midterm elections. According to Gallup, a record-low 12-percent of Americans believe some aspect of the economy is the most important problem facing the U.S. these days.
On the flip side, more than half say the economy is getting better and now is a great time to find a job. All of this bodes well for Republicans in November.
“It’s an extraordinary measure for certain, and I think it really bodes well for the administration and Republicans as we come up on the midterm elections,” says Ed Hirs, an economic lecturer at the University of Houston.
“If we go back to Bill Clinton and George H.W Bush, it does have a lot to do with the economy,” he says. “Gerald Ford rans smack into it when he ran against Jimmy Carter. The economy turned around a couple months after the election, and had it been a little sooner President Ford would have been elected to his own turn.”
However, Hirs says what goes up, must come down. And he fears our continued borrowing, trade tariffs and growing deficit will come back to bite us before 2020.
“Nowhere has supply side economics worked in anything remotely approaching what the administration has expected,” he says. “Which is to stimulate growth beyond four percent and stimulate growth so much that tax revenues increase.”
Hirs points out that President Trump put everything on the table when it came to cutting big government, but it was Republicans who put much of it right back into the latest spending bill.