Second, this isn’t a political football. This is something that every American can look at and agree that we need to be bringing powerful tools (regulatory, legal, policy, aid, EMS, hospital, pharmacy, education, volunteer, etc.) in a concerted and coordinated effort to fix this.
Third, any efforts are obviously going to take time to show up in the death rate, but even if we are turning a corner will need to be sustained across administrations.
One could sensibly make the argument that the root of the problem is the carving out of the middle class and manufacturing base of the country that occurred solidly during Obama’s years as a result of the push toward globalization. The massive economic improvement as a result of the tax cuts and deregulation since Trump’s election has helped get people whose jobs were “never coming back” to become gainfully employed again and motivated to face the hard fight against opioid dependence.
But in the end it’s just finger pointing / and falsely ascribing causation to correlation to try to score political points or demonize the “other side”.
https://www.statnews.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/CDC-Over...
2016: 246-194 Republican
2014: 247-188 Republican
2012: 234-201 Republican
Six year incumbency.
2016: 52-46 Republican
2014: 54-44 Republican
2012: 53-45 Republican
2010: 51-47 Republican
8 years incumbency