Obama Better For Economy, Workers And Economists Agree

Workers and economists agree: President Obama is more likely to help the economy than Republican nominee Mitt Romney.

Economists gave Obama's economic plan an average grade of 3.15 on a five-point scale: nearly 50 percent higher than their 2.14 grade of Romney's plan, according to a new survey by The Economist released on Wednesday. The Economist sent its survey to 1,005 economists, and 384 responded.

Romney has touted his business experience as evidence that he knows the best way jumpstart the economy. But like Obama, he doesn't hold an economics degree. Romney has also rejected some of the views of two of his more renowned economic advisers. The two will debate domestic issues, including economic policy, during the first presidential debate on Wednesday night.

About half of the economists surveyed said that Obama understands economics better than Romney, in contrast to the 28 percent of respondents who believed that Romney had a better grasp of the discipline, according to The Economist. In addition, the number of economists that said the economy would grow more quickly under Obama was nearly double the number that said it would grow more quickly under Romney.

Workers are similarly confident in Obama's ability to help the economy. Fifty-one percent of workers say they believe that Obama has a better vision to create jobs than Romney, in contrast to 35 percent that preferred Romney, according to a survey by Glassdoor released Wednesday.

Romney has proposed slashing government spending by roughly 20 percent, but many progressive economists agree that suddenly cutting government spending could spur a recession. Obama, in contrast, has proposed a fiscal stimulus called the American Jobs Act, which economists estimate could create roughly 2 million jobs.