Fun Economic Statistics by Presidential Administration

What follows are some interesting economic statistics that support our thinking:

Unfortunately, the most notable exception to this bi-partisan approach is the current Republican-controlled House of Representatives. The House basically has thumbed their nose at President Obama and the American people since 2010, refusing to pass any job creation legislation or student debt re-structuring legislation for fear that the President would get credit for any successful results. The country is fortunate that the Democrats ran the House during President Obama's first two years, passing a fiscal stimulus package that, while smaller than most economists felt necessary, did stop the bleeding from President Bush's Great Recession and started us on the path of a slow and steady recovery.

We won't blame Speaker Boehner and mainstream Republicans entirely for this lack of cooperation, though. The Speaker did negotiate a "Grand Bargain" with the President in 2011, only to see it fall apart because the Tea Party wing of the House GOP (who receives daily support from right-wing talk radio) refused to compromise their extremist agenda and do what was best for the country.

One final thought, this one dealing with the growth experienced during the Reagan years and the misleading lessons that today's conservatives draw from that time period. It frequently is forgotten that, while President Reagan espoused a supply-side economic philosophy and did lower tax rates for high-income individuals, his overall budget policies (developed with the Democratic majorities in Congress) were very Keynesian in nature: he abandoned his "balance the budget" campaign rhetoric as he and the Congress worked to grow the economy via demand-side stimulus at a time when the Federal Reserve Board's tight money policies were forcing a contraction in economic activity. Perhaps that shouldn't be too surprising, however, as Citizen Reagan did vote for Franklin Roosevelt four times.

More to come……