Is life better for people when the generally more fiscally Conservative Republicans run Congress?
It certainly seems to be.
To date, Arthur Okun’s Misery Index, adding the inflation rate to the unemployment rate) remains one of the best economic snapshots available to us, for how the economy is treating the people.
What I’ve done is to take two twelve-year periods, one set in which the Democrats controlled both Houses of Congress and another in which the GOP controlled both Houses.
I took the most recent periods for both Parties in which they each controlled both Houses.
For the Democrats, I took 1978 thru 1980, 1987 thru 1994 and 2007, and for the GOP, I took 1995 thru 2006.
The results are stark.
The Democrats twelve-year average is 11.7 compared to 7.6 for the GOP years! Moreover, 60% of the Democratic years were in the double digits, compared to 0% for the GOP!
That’s right 0%!
In fact, over that period, the only two years were significantly below double-digits (1994 and 2007) the first fueled, in part by the “peace dividend” and the second (2007) coming amidst the revenue boosting “Bush tax cuts of 2001.
More damning still, is that every year the Republicans controlled both Houses of Congress, their Misery Indexes beat the Democrat’s 2nd best year (1994’s 8.7)...the worst Misery Index under GOP tenure was 8.5 in 2005! Including 1998's "LOWEST Misery Index in over forty years" (6.05).
Ouch, those Liberal policies really do hurt!
It certainly seems to be.
To date, Arthur Okun’s Misery Index, adding the inflation rate to the unemployment rate) remains one of the best economic snapshots available to us, for how the economy is treating the people.
What I’ve done is to take two twelve-year periods, one set in which the Democrats controlled both Houses of Congress and another in which the GOP controlled both Houses.
I took the most recent periods for both Parties in which they each controlled both Houses.
For the Democrats, I took 1978 thru 1980, 1987 thru 1994 and 2007, and for the GOP, I took 1995 thru 2006.
The results are stark.
The Democrats twelve-year average is 11.7 compared to 7.6 for the GOP years! Moreover, 60% of the Democratic years were in the double digits, compared to 0% for the GOP!
That’s right 0%!
In fact, over that period, the only two years were significantly below double-digits (1994 and 2007) the first fueled, in part by the “peace dividend” and the second (2007) coming amidst the revenue boosting “Bush tax cuts of 2001.
More damning still, is that every year the Republicans controlled both Houses of Congress, their Misery Indexes beat the Democrat’s 2nd best year (1994’s 8.7)...the worst Misery Index under GOP tenure was 8.5 in 2005! Including 1998's "LOWEST Misery Index in over forty years" (6.05).
Ouch, those Liberal policies really do hurt!
