Record is Clear: Economy Thrives Under Democratic Governance

Democrats need to do a better job of touting their economic record. If the American people knew the truth about the effectiveness of the two parties in office it's hard to see how the GOP would win many elections. Let’s compare the economic results of the past 80-plus years under Republican and Democratic administrations. First, the Republicans. From Hoover to George W. Bush Republican administrations produced an anemic average growth rate of only 1.68% a year, with an unemployment rate of 7.3% and an average inflation rate of 3.9%.* Under the Democrats from Roosevelt to Obama economic growth averaged 5.1% a year, unemployment averaged 7.2% and inflation averaged 3.4%.  The Democrats, the more liberal party, outperformed the Republicans, the more conservative party, in all three areas, as you can graphically see in the figures below.  

All Administrations, 1929-2014, including the Great Depression.

                        Years      Growth  Unemployment  Inflation

Republicans       40        1.68%           7.3%            3.9%*

Democrats         46         5.07%           7.2%            3.4%

But what if we exclude the Great Depression as an anomaly? Even without Hoover, the other 36 years under GOP control from Eisenhower to George W. Bush have produced the following stats: an average growth rate of 2.53%, unemployment rate of 6.1%, and inflation rate of 3.9 %. If you don’t count the first four years of Roosevelt’s time in office, when the country was digging out from under massive unemployment figures accumulated by his Republican predecessor, the Democrats averaged a 4.22% growth rate (and remember, we’re not counting the excellent growth rates Roosevelt compiled in the New Deal years) with only 5.1% unemployment and a lower 3.7% inflation rate than under the Republicans. Put another way, for the last 73 years, the economy has grown 68.8% faster and unemployment has been 19.6% lower when a Democrat ran the country. Whichever way you slice it, liberal policies have produced consistently and decisively better results for the American people over a very lengthy period of time. The figures below make it clear.   

Administrations, 1942-2014, not including the Great Depression.

                          Growth            Unemployment           Inflation

Republicans       2.53%                    6.1%                       3.9%

Democrats          4.22%                   5.1%                       3.7%