Ohio’s Dayton Business Journal reports today that “President George W. Bush will leave office on Tuesday with the worst employment-growth record of any president since World War II, according to a new analysis.”
The story goes on to list the job-growth rankings for all post-war presidents. This is where I get confused.
Of the 11 presidents listed, the top four job-creators are Democrats; the bottom five are Republicans.
Is trickle-down economics a myth after all, as my Dem friends have always tried to tell me? Certainly some of this job growth came with government expansion, but much of it was in the private sector, specifically in retail trade, construction and manufacturing. Isn’t that where a lot of the trickling is supposed to happen?
Now, these stats may well be of the infamous Type III (see Disraeli, Benjamin). For example, if you look at inflation rates during these stronger job-creating administrations, some of the luster may dim.
Still, it makes you wonder.