Democrats on Economics

Since there's no early voting today, I finally have enough of a breather to do something I've been meaning to do for quite a while: inject some facts into the presidential race. A big thanks goes to Brad DeLong for compiling all the pretty graphics for me.

Since John McCain's entire economic plan centers around earmarks, let's start with those. Everyone agrees that the Federal Budget is out of control. So how much good is he liable to do for us by concentrating on earmarks?

Some of you might have to go get your glasses to make out that blue sliver at the top labeled "Earmarks". Is McCain really planning on wasting effort trying to shrink that tiny sliver, or is he just lying to everyone? I almost hope it's the latter, and that's sad.

Democrats are Better Democrats
The traditional Democratic economic goals have always been increasing jobs and economic fairness. How have they done in reality?




Note how in every graph the Democrats are at the top and the Republicans are at the bottom. The only exception is the Roosevelt/Truman cycle, where all our drafted soldiers from WWII came back into the job market at once.

Democrats Are Better Republicans
Republicans, on the other hand, have traditionally sold themselves as the folks who will control the budget deficit, increase the Gross Domestic Product, and be better for the stock market. What has the truth been?



Once again, the Democrats tend to all be clustered at the top, and the Republicans at the bottom. The exceptions for the Democrats again seem to mostly be WWII related. The Republicans would look far worse if not for Eisenhower. He was a popular General drafted into the Republican party before anyone really knew his politics, very much like Colin Powell.

How is it, one might ask, that Democrats do better on Republican goals, when in theory the are concentrating on their own goals? Perhaps it is as Obama keeps saying: businesses do better when they have more customers who can afford their services.

Whatever the reason, the results are pretty clear. When it comes to economics, if your priorities lean Democratic, you should vote for Democrats. If your priorities lean Republican, you should still vote for Democrats.