Old Retired Guy Blog

October 17, 2008

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Economics (Page 3/3)

Something doesn't seem right. The Republicans have always claimed to be fiscally responsible, much more so than those tax-and-spend Democrats. Despite their claims, it appears that Republicans are twice as likely to bring recessions.

What other data can we look at to confirm or refute this apparent discrepancy? How about data on the National Debt? I found the following data in an entry in Wikipedia. It shows how the National Debt changed relative to the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) for each presidential term from 1945 through 2005. Negative numbers mean that the debt has gone down. Positive numbers mean that the debt has gone up.

Change in National Debt Relative to Gross Domestic Product
President	Party	Term	Change in Debt/GDP
Roosevelt/Truman	D	1945-1949	-24.3%
Truman	D	1949-1953	-21.9%
Eisenhower	R	1953-1957	-10.8%
Eisenhower	R	1957-1961	-5.4%
Kennedy/Johnson	D	1961-1965	-8.2%
Johnson	D	1965-1969	-8.3%
Nixon	R	1969-1973	-2.9%
Nixon/Ford	R	1973-1977	+0.1%
Carter	D	1977-1981	-3.2%
Reagan	R	1981-1985	+11.3%
Reagan	R	1985-1989	+9.2%
G.H.W. Bush	R	1989-1993	+13.1%
Clinton	D	1993-1997	-0.6%
Clinton	D	1997-2001	-8.2%
G.W. Bush	R	2001-2005	+6.9%

These are very interesting data.

Out of the fifteen 4-year presidential terms from 1945 - 2005, the debt relative to the GDP has increased five times.
All five increases occurred under Republican presidents.
The worst relative debt increase came under George H. W. ("Read my lips; no new taxes.") Bush, the Reagan terms were a close second and third, and the first term of George W. ("I'm the decider.") Bush came in fourth.
All seven terms under Democratic presidents showed decreases.

Once again, I have to say that I know little about economics. However, from these data it looks to me like the Republican's claim to be the more fiscally responsible party is pure fiction. One might say it is an outright lie.

End of Economics Entry
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