James Pethokoukis throws cold water on Frum's prediction that four years of economic expansion will strengthen Democrats' policy rhetoric:
[E]mployment and output would still be way below their pre-Great Recession trend lines. Income growth would be no great shakes. Indeed, Ben Bernanke said recently that U.S. GDP potential growth pre-recession was 2.5% vs. the 3.4% average since WWII. So message #!1 would be “We can do a lot better” with specific pro-growth ideas from taxes to immigration to basic research. A focus on competitiveness and productivity with a goal of returning to 3-4% growth. Message #2 would be “We care about middle-class families” with pro-parent policy tilt. One example: A great expanded child credit. And a specific healthcare reform plan would be helpful.
Frum wonders whether this will be enough:
After 2013, Democrats will be able to tell the following story: "The Bush tax cuts were in place from 2002 through 2012, ten years. In the first half of the decade, we experienced the weakest economic expansion since the war. In the second half of the decade, we suffered the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression. Then the tax cuts expired. And since 2013, we've seen accelerating economic growth and rapidly decreasing unemployment. Tax cuts didn't help. Tax increases didn't hurt."
He adds:
Republicans will need a better answer to that claim than the pure assertion that tax cuts will lead to 4% growth.
The Dish 