Why Believe Them?

Republicans have historically campaigned on being fiscally more responsible than Democrats.  Let’s look at the facts.   During Reagan’s terms in office, the annualized growth in federal spending was 8.7% in his first term and 4.9% in his second term.  Bush 41’s annualized growth in spending was 5.4%.  Bush 43 saw spending increase by 7.3% and 8.1% over his two terms in office.  On the other hand, under Clinton, annualized federal spending increased by 3.2% in his first term and by 3.9% in his second term.  The first three years of the Obama administration saw annualized federal spending increase by 1.4%, the smallest of any of the past five administrations, yet Republicans make that erroneous claim about government spending by democratic administrations.

Under democratic presidencies the federal debt increased by $4.876 trillion dollars while republican presidents managed to increase the debt by $9.766 trillion dollars.  It appears that republicans are not only big spenders but also big liars when it comes to responsibility for spending.

When it comes to creating jobs, over the period of 1941 to 2011, when Republicans held the White House, a total of 69.315 million jobs were created.  When the White House was occupied by Democrats, a total of 123.866 million jobs were created. Of the total of 193.181 million new jobs, 64% were created by Democratic administrations and the most recent Republican Administration of George Bush had the worst job creation record of any modern presidential administration.  So where is any evidence that tax cuts lead to more jobs?

Republicans also like to say the Democrats are the party of big government.  Looking at the actual change in non-military government employees by administration one would see that Under Reagan federal employees grew by 238000, Bush 41 reduced federal employees by 30,000 and Bush 43 grew the size of government by 53,000 employees.  Together, federal employees under Republican administrations grew by 261,000 employees.  On the other side of the picture, Carter had a reduction of 8000 people during his term in office.  Clinton also had a reduction of 380,000 federal employees while Obama grew the size of the federal employees by 84,000.  All together Democrats saw the size of government shrink by 304,000 employees while Republicans saw federal employment grow by 261,000 people.  The last time it was checked, -304,000 is not bigger than +261,000 except in the minds of Republican liars.

Since 1979, the top 1% of Americans have enjoyed 281% increase in income.  The top 20% saw their income increase by 95%.  The middle 20% of Americans only experienced a 25% in income from 1979 – 2011 failing to keep up with inflation. And, the bottom 20% saw their income increase over those 32 years by only 16% an average of less than ½ of 1% per year.  It is no wonder those in the top tax brackets would want a Republican administration.  Tax cuts for the wealthy have been very good for a very small number of citizens while doing nothing for 80% of the rest of American citizens.

In the waning days of this campaign season, both parties will be responsible for misinformation and lies.  However, if one takes time to look at the facts and analyze historical data available from the OMB, one finds that like the debt, Republicans not only have out spent Democrats but have also out lied them.