Wampum

Just For the Record Update

I have been meaning to update the Just for the Record series in which I looked at various measures of economic performance by the party of the President ( budget deficits, government employment, economic growth, unemployment, inflation, and job creation).

I have not updated because those posts involve a lot of tedious work crunching economic data. Fortunately, I no longer feel the need to update because Michael Kinsley has done the work (I bet he has a staff).

Federal spending (aka "big government"): It has gone up an average of about $50 billion a year under presidents of both parties. But that breaks down as $35 billion a year under Democratic presidents and $60 billion under Republicans…

Spending goes up faster under Republican presidents than under Democratic ones. And the economy grows faster under Democrats than Republicans. What grows faster under Republicans is debt.

Under Republican presidents since 1960, the federal deficit has averaged $131 billion a year. Under Democrats, that figure is $30 billion. In an average Republican year, the deficit has grown by $36 billion. In the average Democratic year it has shrunk by $25 billion. The national debt has gone up more than $200 billion a year under Republican presidents and less than $100 billion a year under Democrats…

From 1960 to 2005 the gross domestic product measured in year-2000 dollars rose an average of $165 billion a year under Republican presidents and $212 billon a year under Democrats…

The average annual rise in real per capita income -- that's the statistic that puts money in your pocket. Democrats score about 30 percent higher…

Democratic presidents have a better record on inflation (averaging 3.13 percent compared with 3.89 percent for Republicans) and on unemployment (5.33 percent versus 6.38 percent). Unemployment went down in the average Democratic year, up in the average Republican one…

Kinsley doesn’t mention my favorite. Here is the ranking of the last 13 presidents by job creation:

1) Roosevelt (1933-45): +5.3%

2) Johnson (1963-69): +3.8%

3) Carter (1977-81): +3.1%

4) Truman: (1945-53): +2.5%

5) Kennedy (1961-63): +2.5%

6) Clinton (1993-2001): +2.4%

7) Nixon (1969-75): +2.2%

8) Reagan (1981-89): +2.1%

9) Ford (1975-77): +1.1%

10) Eisenhower (1953-61): +0.9%

11) Bush (1989-93): +0.6%

12) Bush (2001-present): -0.7%

13) Hoover (1929-33): -9.0%

Those rankings were through 2002, if I remember correctly. The current President may have have moved up a notch or so since then. That list is suggestive because job growth was higher under all six Democratic Presidents than under any of the seven Republican Presidents.

The true genius of the GOP has been its ability to get people not to vote their wallet.

Update: Avedon on the Deadbeat Daddy Party.

Posted by Dwight Meredith at April 3, 2005 01:30 PM | TrackBack