The Bubble: By undoing Obama accomplishments, Trump let economy soar, conservatives say

Each week, USA TODAY's OnPolitics blog takes a look at how media from the left and the right reacted to a political news story, giving liberals and conservatives a peek into the other's media bubble.

This week, commentators responded to outstanding jobs reports and economic data that signaled a continued economic expansion under President Trump. 

Conservatives, despite apprehension toward Trump's tariffs and trade policies, said Trump clearly deserves the credit for removing the Obama-era constraints from American businesses. They said the booming economy will prevent a Democratic wave in the 2018 midterm elections and will seal the president's re-election in 2020. 

Liberals pointed to slow wage growth and wealth inequality to show that all is not perfect in Trump's economy and said there were many signs that the current gains won't continue. 

Last week:On Samantha Bee, Trump's the one with the double standard, liberals say

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Conservative bubble: Obama deserves credit for giving Trump bad policies to repeal

"Liberals have opposed virtually every move President Trump has taken on the economy, which makes it inconvenient for them that economic conditions are so universally positive," wrote Stephen Moore and Arthur Laffer in the Wall Street Journal. "It is hard to find a single indicator that isn’t pointed in a bullish direction. That’s why the left is now forced to argue that Mr. Trump’s economic success is really the continuation of a trend that began under President Obama."

While Moore and Laffer concede that Obama deserves "credit for the long and durable recovery," but they say it was the "weakest recovery since the Great Depression" and that it "left much of the country behind." 

"Obama might be justified in taking credit for today’s economy if his successor had adopted and carried on his policies. Instead, Mr. Trump has reversed nearly every Obama rule, edict and law that he can legally overturn," they said. "In that sense, they really did set up President Trump for this big economic rally — by giving him bad policies to repeal."

More:There are now more job openings than there are people out of work

Liberal bubble: GOP will use economy to distract from Trump

It makes sense for the Democrats to run on restraining or impeaching Trump in the 2018 midterms, said The New Yorker'sJohn Cassidy. But they need to hone an economic message as well because "Democrats will also have to contend with Republican efforts to distract from Trump’s manifest unfitness for office. It’s now clear that these efforts will focus on the economy." 

As good as the economic news is, there is still modest wage growth, depressed median household incomes and wealth inequality, Cassidy said. In addition, the impact of a potential trade war remains to be seen and the current rate of economic growth isn't expected to last. 

In short, the Democrats have some strong arguments they can make to counter the Republican claim that everything is tickety-boo. Moreover, there are plenty of historical precedents for the party in the White House losing many seats in the midterms, despite a healthy-seeming economy.

More:Business economists worry about a possible recession in 2020

Conservative bubble: The Trump Miracle 

Radio host Wayne Allyn Root refers to the economic turnaround as "The Trump Miracle" and believes Trump "is our generation's Reagan."

"Actually, Trump may actually be better than Reagan," Root said in a column for Townhall. "Reagan produced millions of good-paying middle class jobs, unprecedented prosperity and the greatest economic expansion in world history. Trump is on track to surpass Reagan’s economic success."

"It’s a new day under President Trump," said Root, who thinks Trump should win a Nobel prize in economics. "We are free to make money again. We are free to practice capitalism without guilt. The sun is out. The skies are blue. There's a job in every pot. The Trump Miracle lives." 

More:Trump just may be what international trade needs

Liberal bubble: Don't believe the hype 

Cheery economic data "should not blind us to the harsh reality facing most Americans," said The Nation's editor and publisher, Katrinavanden Heuvel, in a column in the Washington Post.  

"America is a wealthy country with millions of struggling people," she said. "Compared with their peers in other industrialized nations, Americans live shorter, more stressful, less healthy lives while working longer hours with fewer vacations. Our stunning decline in life expectancy is largely because of diseases of despair — addiction, suicide and depression." 

Trump's policies only make the real problem — income inequality — worse, vanden Heuvel said. And the "next downturn will erase what gains there have been and leave most Americans in worse straits. For all of his 'America First' bluster, Trump’s misplaced priorities will only add to the misery."

Trade Partnership:Trump’s 'tough' trade moves are just making us lose jobs

Conservative bubble: Trump got government out of the way

Under Trump, "job creators" have been able to conduct their business without government getting in the way, wrote the Washington Examiner's editorial board. "Instead of being demonized or harassed by Democrat Hillary Clinton’s bureaucrats, as they were by Obama's, businesses have enjoyed a degree of regulatory certainty and respect from the Trump administration," the Examiner's board said. 

But there is still work to be done, it said. "Trump needs to end his dreadful trade policies and bring tariffs down" and "Congress needs to get its act together and slash the spending and borrowing." Otherwise, Republicans risk losing power to the Democrats.

"Why hand the keys to the economy to the party that routinely slashes the tires?" the editorial asked. 

More:Unemployment rate falls to 3.8% as employers add 223,000 jobs in May

Liberal bubble: The economic expansion is a bubble waiting to pop 

Despite positive jobs numbers and strong manufacturing sentiment, "there are actually a rising number of reasons to fret that the party is nearing an end," said Tim Mullaney in a post forMartketWatch. Mullaney cited rising interest rates, declining birth rates and low real wages as signs of trouble, but said the real cause for concern is the president himself. 

"Every expansion ends when something it’s based on rots — commercial real estate in 1990, tech-stock valuations in 2000, the housing bubble in 2007," he wrote. "The thing rotting now is confidence in the steadiness of the man in charge, an element of the post-2008 expansion we should appreciate more.

"Trade policy is a symptom of the disease, fewer babies and housing sales signs of its effects. And Trump’s public spinning, with a staff recently stripped of nearly all of its adults, is a sign that it’s likely to get a lot worse."

More:Donald Trump promised a trade war. Should we let his voters get what they asked for?