When there's a financial failure at a Company typically the CEO is blamed not The accountant uh but if you look at the United States as a corporation the President feels the heat from a down Economy but should he so at the moment President Biden is under the economic Gun less than a year out from his Potential reelection 63% of those pulled By CBS disapprove of the way Mr Biden is Handling the economy that's despite Decent job numbers over the last several Months including the labor department Announcing 150,000 new jobs in October Partisan politics say many Americans Believing that the president has Significant control over the national Economy but that is largely a Misconception which is important for Voters to know before casting a ballot So here to help us explore the Relationship between the president and The economy a bit deeper is Patrick Egan He's an associate professor of politics And public policy at NYU and he wrote The book partisan priorities how issue Ownership diverts and distorts American Politics good to have you Professor Great to be here so I'm I'm really Excited to talk with you about this Because I think that there's a lot of People who believe that there's a direct Connection between the nation's economy And the Oval Office and that may be in
Part because historically at least in The modern era presidents have run on The economy they've campaigned on the Economy the last president spent most of The presidency pointing out the stock Market gains and in a lot of people's Minds the stock market is the economy Even though they're completely separate Um or not completely separate but one Doesn't always necessarily have to do With the other um so why does that why Does that factor into how people Perceive the president well it's uh you Know one of the things is in this Current US system we look to the President as the the center of Everything in politics so uh For Better Or For Worse we think of the president As being in charge of everything whereas In fact we have separation of powers we Have checks and balances there's a lot Of things that keep the president from Doing exactly what he might like to do At any given time uh nevertheless then As voters are trying to to decide Whether to keep the person in office or Have a new person um they are doing the Kind of thing that we might do in a Job Review or performance review and they're Saying what are the things that matter To me and to what extent should I credit Or blame the person who's in charge um So we got some more polling CBS polling For you that hopefully we can pop up
There a poll of uh likely voters who say That they expect to be better off Financially if Donald Trump becomes the President as opposed to Joe Biden um so What about you know the way President Biden is handling the economy is making Voters feel this way or is it something To do with how Donald Trump made them Feel when he was president well I think One thing to keep in mind is that all Across the rich democracies whether it's Uh Justin Trudeau or arishi sunak or Emanuel mcon in France these are all Incumbents who are facing the same Problem that Joe Biden is facing which Is high inflation middling growth and Kind of a general sense that like things Are not quite right um and so they're All facing this Challenge and the Question is can and com like Joe Biden Uh convince voters that he's done a good Enough job to fight the very serious Challenges that all of these democracies Are facing um when people think of Trump's presidency particularly first Three years before coid that actually Was a pretty good economy lots of job Growth uh low inflation Etc and so uh to The and good stock market numbers as La Mentioned uh and so the um you know That's a time when a lot of people who Are just thinking very simplistically About the two presidencies say yeah that Was a pretty good economy and yet you
Know one of the things that I think is Um sometimes difficult for people to Parse is the role for example the media Plays and how people perceive the Economy uh you have uh short-term Indicators uh the price of milk uh the Price of gas uh and for the next three To six months all you hear and I put Like our news organization and every Every news organization in this bucket You know you got a reporter standing in The checkout line and saying look how Much all these groceries cost and of Course that if you're consuming news in That way that's how you perceive the Economy to be even though those are Often short-term um indicators of how Things are going to be next year and the Year after um are we to partly blame for The perception of that people bring to The the voting booth well I'm not going To come on your show and blame the media But uh but I think what the media is Doing is responding to the very serious And real concerns that typical people Have uh and that is people are finding a Hard time to pay for things and not just Eggs and milk but also houses uh travel All Insurance you know you name it and So um you know uh again as we said at The beginning of the conversation Presidents unfortunately have very Little uh ability to deal with that um You're at kind of the mercy as of a
Global economy and wider economic Trends But voters are trying to understand that And I think the media in part are trying To respond to voters concerns so so then What should voters be focused on if They're trying to understand you know Why their personal economy feels the way Of feels well I think what you want to Do is uh get a sense of whether the Person in the current um position is Doing as good a job as possible to Address these concerns and there are Policy levers that presidents um have at Their disposal again uh they tend to Work in the long term and not the short Term uh they tend to be diffuse rather Than concentrated and direct and so um But you know one thing you might ask is To what extent is the president doing Things that on the margins affect prices And you might say something like the Price of insulin is something that Biden's really done something about Right uh the price of health insurance Uh they you know you've got a big uh Administrative initiative to drive down Drug prices right so there are things That you could say perhaps Biden should Get some credit for and probably other Things that Biden should get some blame For right last question I guess Professor is um again talking about Perception uh often times presidents Come into office Ronald Reagan for
Example if you talk to a lot of Republicans will say oh my gosh the Economy under Ronald Reagan was so great But let's remember what we were coming From in the 1970s similarly with Barack Obama uh Barack Obama remember we were In the 2008 housing crisis he became President of the United States the Question of course becomes for people Who are using this to make political Arguments is was Barack Obama Responsible for the kick from the bottom That we saw or was that likely to happen With whoever was in office was it likely To happen similarly for those who are Ronald Reagan fans if Jimmy Carter had Been reelected right all good questions I think political scientists in my field Would spend a lot of time debating those Very questions um I think those cases Also talk about um moments where there Are National emergencies and that's one Where the president really actually can Have some impact arguably both uh uh uh Bush and Obama get some credit for Wrenching us out of the financial crisis In 2008 2009 um and you ask U one thing That I think voters should ask Themselves is Trump and Biden on Co Which was our most recent Emery you know Who do you credit who do you blame for Those responses yeah that's that's Really interesting because certainly There's enough blame to go around but
You know you got to admit that under President Trump this is where we got a Lot of these measures to support people To make sure they weren't going to get Evicted from their homes to give them Kind of you know the kind of a paycheck To keep them afloat um but then Obviously you could argue that part of The reason that we dealt with the Economic catastrophe because of the Pandemic is because it ended up to be Much more wide sweeping than it than it Should have been true but at the end of The day what we're seeing what we saw at Election week election day this week is That when the economy is important but The economy is cyclical real issues like The overturning of roie Wade has Long-term implication decades long Implications and that's how people are Voting if you look at the numbers from Tuesday that seems to matter at the end Of the day people are voting for Policies that can affect them and their Children not what's going to happen over The course of the next 12 months yeah Yeah it's true Patrick thank you very Really great discussion great to be with You thanks for having me
