Personally, I consider the National Debt to be the greatest threat to the future well-being of the United States. Followed closely by deficit spending. Given the economic news of the past week, with the Federal Government doing its best to socialize losses, I expect the debt will continue to grow. (Did you know the National Debt is about to hit $10 Trillion? That’s Trillion, with a Tr.)
Avedon compiled a review of past administration economic results that Dwight Meredith studied “Just For the Record” – covering 1962-2001.
The link has some specific numbers and links to other interesting pages.
A bit of Summary:
The twenty years of budgets prepared by Republican presidents increased the national debt by $3.8 trillion. The average yearly deficit under Republican budgets was $190 billion.
The twenty years of budgets prepared by Democratic presidents increased the national debt by $719.5 billion. The average yearly deficit under Democratic budgets was $36 billion.
Under the 20 years of Republican administrations the number of non-defense government employees rose by 310,000.
Under the 20 years of Democratic administrations, the number of non-defense government employees rose by 59,000.
Of the 369,000 employees added between 1962 and 2001, 84% were added under Republican administrations and 16% were added under Democratic administrations.
The economy grew in 19 of the 20 years in which Democratic Presidents submitted a budget and in 16 of the 20 years in which Republican Presidents submitted a budget.
For the twenty years for which Republican presidents submitted budgets, the average rate of GDP growth was 2.94%.
For the twenty years in which Democratic presidents submitted budgets, the average rate of GDP growth was 3.92%.
For the twenty years in which Republican Presidents submitted a budget, the unemployment rate averaged 6.75%.
For the twenty years in which Democratic Presidents submitted a budget, the unemployment rate averaged 5.1%.
For the twenty years in which Republican presidents submitted a budget, the inflation rate averaged 4.96%.
For the twenty years in which Democratic presidents submitted a budget, the inflation rate averaged 4.26%.
For the twenty years of Republican submitted budgets the average growth rate of Federal non-defense spending was 10.08%.
For the twenty years of Democratic submitted budgets the average growth rate of Federal non-defense spending was 8.34%.