Recent History of US Economy in a Few Charts

This is a series of simple charts that look at the performance of the US since about 1977.  Blue indicates a Democratic President and Red a GOP President.

• Growth rate of the US has been mixed.  

• Federal debt has been ramped up more when GOP Presidents were in charge:

• While under Carter grew spending dramatically, federal spending grew more under Bush I, II and Reagan than under Clinton. Under Obama its actually grown less than under Bush II (even including the stimulus).

•  Effective Federal tax rates have generally been lower under GOP Presidents

• The tax rate has actually grown more progressive under Bush II as measured by the spread between the average effective tax rates for the top and bottom quintiles.