The Economic Legacy of the Dems

The Democrats have controlled both houses of the legislature since 2006. When they insist that Obama inherited the economy, they forget who was responsible.

From early 2007 through the end of 2010, the Democrats had strong majorities in — and control of — the U.S. House of Representatives and also the U.S. Senate. Both are chambers where laws and policies that affect the economy are created and shaped.
The following table shows how the Democrat Congress performed on average during its four-year tenure vs. the average of the previous four years, 2003 through the end of 2006, when Republican were at the helm:

Issue/Topic	Democrats	Republicans
Jobs by Year – Average	-1,583,000	+1,672,000
Jobs by Month – Average	-131,916	+139,333
Unemployment Rate – Average	7.48%	5.3%
Budget Deficits – Avrage	$1.143 Trillion	$285 Billion
Dow (DJIA)	0.13% (0.53 Total)	11.04%
S & P 500	1.29%	15.02%
FDIC Bank Closures – Average	79.2	1.75

Following are the numbers in more detail.  (Statistics for 2010 will need to be adjusted with the close of December. However, the general picture won’t change much anyway.)
Non-farm Payroll by Year:

2003 = 87,000;

2004 = 2,047,000

2005 = 2,496,000

2006 = 2,060,000 Four-Year Total Republicans: 6,690,000 Jobs GAINED.

2007 = 1,078,000

2008 = 3,623,000 Minus

2009 = 4,740,000 Minus

2010 = 951,000 Four-Year Total Democrats: 6,334,000 Jobs LOST!

Take note that the 2009 Stimulus “could have been worse” year was indeed worse than the previous year — by 1.1 million more jobs lost.

Unemployment Rate by Yearly Average (calculated by dividing in twelve the total monthly Unemployment Rate):

2003  5.99;

2004  5.54;

2005  5.08;

2006  4.61;

2007  4.61;

2008  6.37;

2009  9.28;

2010  9.66
Budget Deficits (The Fiscal Year starts three months into the previous colander year — e.g., FY 2007 was drawn up during 2006 with a Republican Congress.) Numbers are in billions except when indicated otherwise.

FY 2004 = $412

FY 2005 = $318.7

FY 2006 = $247.7

FY 2007 = $162 Total Added Republican Budget Deficits: $1.140 Trillion.

FY 2008 = $454

FY 2009 = $1.416 Trillion

FY 2010 = $1.294 Trillion

FY 2011 = $1.41 Projected by the White House, July 2010 Total Added Democrats Budget Deficits: $4.574 Trillion!
More: http://www.americanthinker.com/2010/12/the_economic_legacy_of_the_fou.html

Take a good look at the record and remember that the next time you hear the leftwing mantra about “evil rich people” and how much they care about the working class.