The Daily Signal - Victor Davis Hanson: Democrats Say the Economy Is Sinking. The Numbers Say Otherwise

Episode Date: September 30, 2026

Republicans risk repeating George H.W. Bush’s 1992 mistake by allowing Democrats to define a strengthening economy as a crisis, particularly on affordability. For months now, Democrats have been screaming to the heavens how unaffordable it is to live a comfortable life here in the United States.  But when you actually look at what's happened, it's not true.  The Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta reports that in the third quarter, the economy will have grown by 5% GDP.  We just had 160,000 new jobs. New jobs were created in the month of August. The unemployment rate is only 4.2%. 🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸The Counterrevolution: The Fall and Rise of Donald Trump and the MAGA MovementThe Daily Signal, the proud producers of “Victor Davis Hanson: In a Few Words,” has a special limited time offer:  With a monthly donation $14, you’ll become BOTH a Signal Elite Supporter AND receive a copy of “The Counterrevolution: The Fall and Rise of Donald Trump and the MAGA Movement”Click here to order: https://secured.dailysignal.com/support-daily-signal-today/?utm_medium=social&utm_source=youtube&utm_campaign=signalelite&utm_content=260930-vdh-book-youtube10 PragerU - Please support PragerU with a tax-deductible donation today. Go to http://PragerU.com/VDH and give generously today. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Welcome to the Daily Signal podcast, where we provide intelligence for the intelligent. Now, without further ado, here's today's take. And yet here we are four weeks before the midterms, and we hear affordability, affordability from the Democrats. And Trump did it, Trump did it, Trump did it. It's time to spend the money in the Republican War chest, all of it, get the message out, get people to get out and vote, and explain what happened under Biden and what the remedies are under Trump and they can still win the midterms if they do that. Hello, this is Victor Davis Hansen for the Daily Signal.

You think it's possible that we're on the edge of a boom and we don't even know it? And we're not in a recession or a downturn or the doom and gloom as the left and the Democrats have told us and assured us four weeks before the midterm. I'm kind of worried about that because, as I mentioned earlier, that happened in 1992. There had been a recession in 1991, partly due to the Gulf War that had disrupted oil surprise. That sounds familiar. And Saddam, remember Hussein had torched the Kuwaiti oil field. But by the time of the November election, that recession had been over for 20 months.

and the George H.W. Bush economy was pretty good. They were still dealing with 7% unemployment, but the inflation was below 3%. The stock market had gone up, 8%. The GDP was 3%. All the indicators were showing a robust recovery. In fact, that year, the GDP would be higher than the next year when Clinton Gore took over. So what happened? Well, what happened is, a couple of things. Of course, there was Ross Parole that affected the Bush vote. He took 19% of the vote, as I had mentioned earlier. And then there was the death of Blea-Outwater. He was a tough, no prisoners taken Politico, and he had died of a brain tumor at 40. And had he been there, he would have stressed the Bush economic record and contrasted it with what Ronald Reagan earlier had inherited from Jimmy Carter. But he wasn't there. And so the new team played by the Marcus of Queensberry's rules, they would rather, I guess, lose nobly than win ugly.

And so the result of it was they had this strong economy. But as they headed into the 1992 election, Al Gore said it was the worst recession. Remember, the recession had been over for 20 months since the Great Depression. Clinton echoed that every campaign stop. Carvel said famously, it's the economy's stupid. And they lost.

They being the Bush ticket lost. It was an incumbent. It had a great record on foreign policy. They had won the Gulf War with very little cost. The Berlin Wall had fallen. He had managed the post-Cold War era very well. But he let the left take hold of the narrative that everything was terrible, even when the economic indicators had shown that the war,

and oil-induced recession was long gone. I'm afraid something has happened here. Democrats say affordability, affordability, everything's terrible, we can't afford anything. But when you actually look at what's happened, it's not true. The Federal Reserve Bank in Atlanta said that in the third quarter, they think when they revise their statistics,

the economy will have grown by 5% GDP. That's astounding. Standard and poorer stock indices for the year are over 10%. So is the Dow Jones. We just had 160,000 new jobs. New jobs were created in the month of August. The unemployment rate is only 4.2%. And the Wall Street Journal just reported that in terms of new business orders and social service orders, each month keeps getting better. The month of August saw market increase in new purchases of computers, communications, medals, apply everything. There is no bad news except one issue. The Democrats have framed it affordability. And if that is really true, why did per capita income and per family income reach an all-time historical high in 2025?

And why did, for example, equally, why did the poverty rate go down to an unknown, on never seen before, about 10% of the population. 90% of the population is much higher incomes and record incomes than the 10% of the poor. It's an astounding business extravaganza, Renaissance, but we're not hearing anything about it. And it's a result of massive deregulation, 400,000 jobs cut in the bureaucracy, closing the border, deporting two to three million people, encouraging jobs for Americans only, targeted tariffs, despite what everybody says, targeted tariff, record oil and gas production that got us through the war without $200 barrel oil, and a sense that the world wants to invest in the United States, that there's $10, $11 trillion of new investment.

But why didn't the Republicans, why aren't they addressing this affordability issue? That's what the Democrats say is the problem. Well, to the degree that prices are expensive, it was because a year and a half ago, Joe Biden finished his term with 21% aggregate inflation. and when you look at the things that people care most about housing, vehicles, insurance, food, healthcare, prices in that mere four years went up 30%. All together, inflation average 5.1% during his tenure. So when the Trump administration came in, and by the way, during his first term, four years, Trump's yearly average was only 40% of Biden's inflation, just 2%.

And when he came in, his first year was been a little over 2%. Now, of course, the war and the oil crisis will raise that a little bit. Probably this year, inflation will be below 3%. But why haven't the Republicans just sat down with the American people and said, we inherited 21% inflation and 30% on what you care most about? How do we stop that? We stop the rate of inflation. We slow it down so that you're not paying 5.1% every year for generally everything, but especially 6 or 7 or 8% for what you care most about. And we've already cut that in half. And when this war is over and oil is glutting the market, we will do even better. But the affordability issue, that the Democrats are claiming is our fault, was we inherited it. And more than importantly, the only way to get back to where Donald Trump was in his first term would be to have a recession,

a radical deflationary economy that receded and all of the Biden inflation. But the economy couldn't take a 20 to 30 percent cut in prices to make up for the inflation of the Biden year. All we can do is two things. Cut the inflation rate radically, and they're doing that, and increase wages. And the first year of the Trump term wages rose higher than inflation. What's happening then? It's the same thing as happened in 1992. There was no recession. The economy had come out of it almost two years earlier. There were strong indications that things would get better. And the Democrats did the same thing then that they're doing now. And the Republicans, are doing the same thing now that the Bush team did then. They're not replying and explaining the affordability issue, who is responsible for it, and then indicating all the good things that are happening from business orders to service orders, to poverty rates, to income rates, to GDP, to inflation, to stock market, standard and poor, Dow Jones, it's all pretty good. And more importantly, if they would do that, it would allow them to,

to talk also about these foreign policy successes. They have flipped, the administration has flipped all of Latin America from an anti-American pink tide to a pro-capitalist, pro-Western, pro-American Western hemisphere, where there's only five of 32 countries left that are communist, socialist, anti-American. The same thing is happening in the Middle East with the Gulf states and the moderate Arab regimes.

If Iran's regime falls within a year, it will be as tumultuous as the fall of the Berlin Wall. It will be the most significant foreign policy achievement since 1989. Our main antagonist, Russia has bleated a million and a half people. Its economy is in shambles. It has lost its proxies in Syria, Venezuela, and Iran. China has a $10 trillion smaller GDP than we do. It has 1.0 fertility. Its economy is stagnant.

Chi has, I don't know what he did with him, but he got rid of about 80% of his top generals. It's a society in crisis. The United States is posed once again to be the most powerful, economic, military, social, and cultural force in the world. And yet here we are four weeks before the midterms. And we hear affordability, affordability, affordability from the Democrats.

And Trump did it, Trump did it, Trump did it. It's time to spend the money in the Republican war chest, all of it, get the message out, get people to get out and vote and explain what happened under Biden and what the remedies are under Trump. And they can still win the midterms if they do that. Thank you very much. This is Victor Davis-Hanson for the Daily Seaginal. Victor is a close friend of Dennis Prager and has had the privilege of working with his remarkable team at Prager U.

Victor has appeared in several five-minute videos reaching millions worldwide. Remarkably, more than 60% of Prager U's audiences under 35, the very generation who most needs our enduring American principles. At a time when education and media too often erode confidence in our confidence, in our country, country, Prager You stands firm in defending truth, reason, and the ideas of Western civilization. We're proud to be part of the Prager You family. Please support Prager You with a tax-deductible donation today. Go to prageru.com slash VDH and give generously today. Thank you for tuning in to the Daily Signal.

Please like, share, and subscribe to be notified for more content like this. You can also check out my own website at victorhansson.com and subscribe for exclusive features in addition.