Nation fares better under Democrats
Political satirist Stephen Colbert claims “reality has a well-known liberal bias.” It appears he is right. Although Republicans extol virtues of fiscal conservatism as if it were an indisputable law of nature, an article of faith, if you will, the facts reveal just the opposite.
Over the last 60 years under five Democratic and six Republican presidents, except for the wealthiest 5 percent, we’ve fared significantly better under Democrats when judged by these five key economic measurements: GDP growth (4.1 percent v 2.9 percent), employment (2.9 percent v 1.7 percent), inflation (4.0 percent v 5.1 percent), Dow Jones performance (8.1 percent v 6.5 percent) and the U.S. dollar valued against European currencies (+0.8 percent v -3.6 percent). The differences are even greater when George W.’s eight years are considered alone.
These measurements have been astonishingly consistent over the years, even in constantly changing circumstances. The Democrats seem to do better no matter what you measure, how you measure it or how you manipulate the data.
In view of the alleged liberal bias of the mainstream press, we might wonder why these facts have remained largely unpublished. But although the columnists and reporters might lean slightly to the left, the media moguls do nothing of the sort.
GEORGE B. REED JR.