The Myth:

Republicans are good for the economy; Democrats are bad for the economy.

It depends on what you think are good and bad.

Category	Bush I	Clinton	Bush II
Median Income	- 4.9%	+ 14.5%	- 2.2%
Americans In Poverty (Compared to Predecessor)	- 6.5 Million	- 7.7 Million	+ 1.3 Million
Job Creation	+ 2.3 Million	+ 22.9 Million	- 1.5 Million
Unemployment Rate (Compared To Predecessor)	+ 1.9%	- 3.1%	+ 0.6% (peaked at + 2.0% in 2003)

Concept: Los Angeles Times: Sep 30, 2002; Ronald Brownstein;
updated with data from Congressional Budget Office

Final Year's Budget Deficit (Billions of Dollars)
President	Last Year In Office	Deficit In $ Billions	Increase In $ Billions	Increase %
Johnson	1968	25.2	1960 data n/a - this is a baseline
Nixon/Ford	1976	73.7	+ 48.6	+ 92.8%
Carter	1980	73.8	+ 0.1	+ 0.1%
Reagan	1988	155.2	+ 81.3	+ 110.9%
Bush I	1992	290.3	+ 216.5	+ 39.5%
Clinton	2000	125.6	- 415.9	- 45.5%
Bush II	2007	286.3	+ 286.3	+ 127.9%

Source: Congressional Budget Office

Non-Defense Government Employees Added or Subtracted
Kennedy/Johnson	178,000
Nixon/Ford	213,000
Carter	- 14,000
Reagan	3,000
George H.W. Bush	104,000
Clinton	- 115,000

Doing The Math:

• Under the 20 years of Republican administrations
  the number of non-defense government employees rose by 310,000.
• During the 20 years of Democratic administrations
  the number of non-defense government employees rose by 59,000.
• Of the 369,000 non-defense government employees added between 1962 and 2001,
  • 84% were added under Republican administrations
  • 16% were added under Democratic administrations
• In 40 years ALL 3 of the Republican administrations increased the number of non-defense federal employees.
• In the same 40 years, 2 0f the 3 Democratic administrations decreased the number of non-defense federal employees.
  

But Wait! There's More!
Under the G.W. Bush regime, the number of federal employees decreased, but the jobs did not go away. Instead, civil service employees were replaced by contractors. Add back in the number of contractors, and the number of people performing government tasks increased. The contractors cost the feds significantly more than did the former civil servants (even when you include the funding of civil service retirements). In addition, productivity decreased. The productivity problems have at least 4 causes:

1. the experienced employees left
2. inexperienced contractors replaced those employees
3. the contracting companies have no incentive to perform well - their incentive is to run up costs rather than to cut costs
   
4. the management put in place by the Bush Administration is notoriously incompetent ("Heckuva job, Brownie"); managers are placed, not on the basis of skill, but on the basis of political loyalty and ideological purity.

When all the facts are sorted out, the Bush administration will be proven to be the worst of all Republican administrations when it comes to increasing the size and cost of the federal government.