Just for the Record

[Theophylact]

Who does better at managing the economy: Democrats or Republicans? This site has compiled the statistics for a number of areas -- growth in GDP, inflation, size of non-military Government, unemployment, defecit/surplus, and so on -- for Democratic and Republican administrations for the last 40 years. (You can go to his sources to check out the details.)

[osprey4]

I realize this "analysis" reflects the musings of some blogger, but it is nonetheless fallacious. Just on the surface, it makes two false assumptions. First, that the government "manages" the economy. Second, that the president is solely responsible for the performance of the economy and federal budget during the years of his term.

[Toddly]

While it may be true that the President or either party "manages" the economy they sure love to take the credit when things are going well.

[Theophylact]

My point exactly.

[Target]

Perhaps more exactly to your point Theo is that regardless of who/what controls the economy, both parties seem to enjoy taking credit when things are going well, and both absolve themselves of any responsibility or influence on it when its not going well.

However, back to the article in question, I did find it quite ironic that spending and growth in government both apparently increased under Republican Party Presidents versus those under Democratic Party Presidents....

[Knothead]

I've always pretty much dismissed the idea that either type of administration can actually affect the economy, but for the reason that economic forces are chaotic in and of themselves.

Legislation and corruption work hand-in-hand to create the political/economic situation...sometimes these factors create a quick reaction, sometimes it takes a real long time to show itself...

And the economy is such a VAST thing, quite often, the successes that show up in ONE administration can be traced to the successes/bunglings of the previous one!

So I just laugh my head off at these characters when they earnestly take the credit when the goings are good!

Believe me, they know better (meaning, they are still mystified!)

[Blueliner]

I think Dems are better with the economy. Cause it's all about the economy! Who cares if a few thousand Americans get killed, lets get that economy going! Protect Americans from more attacks, no no lets get that economy going! Tax cuts? heck no, more handouts for minorities, and get the ECONOMY BETTER!!! See, the dems being against the Iraq war hurt their stance as THE defenders of the economy, because hey, lets smack up some arabs fools, take their oil, THEN our economy will be doing GREAT! That's an idea for you!

[daveleau]

Hmmm. Let's see. Reagan's years showed the largest growth in two decades. Then President Bush took over and the country's growth went down to around 4%/ year. President Clinton used this "stagnant" growth to win the election. The years that proceeded yielded less than 4% growth at several times and Clinton said 'look at my great influence on our economy!'

The growth data in that article is wrong. It is simply not true as you will see in my link below from an UNBIASED SOURCE: The almanac. Looking back at the economy of the 60's and 70's, do you really think the growth was more than President Reagan's? That is laughable. You might convince some, but I doubt you will convince anyone who actually lived through those times and know the truth.

This is info on economic growth from an almanac (not some out of the way page where you can find any lie you want...remember in the world there are Lies, Damn Lies and Statistics)
http://www.infoplease.com/ipa/A0104575.html
Notice the 3 to 6 fold increase from the 70s to the 80s and the 2 fold increase to the 90s. Then the growth goes down the drain after that. Let's see...Reagan was in the 80s, and Clinton was in the 90s. Interesting... I found some other pages, but you'd have to be a statistics person to understand them. And, as I said before about the link above, there are lies, damn lies and statistics.

[daveleau]

What? I expose the incorrectness of the original link and then no one else wants to discuss?

[Bushmaster]

Me thinks a better question is "which party is more effective at smiling at us and telling us all will be well while they rip us all off"