GDP growth by Republican Presidents

**Coolio** · 21st August 2011 05:41 PM

From 1948-2009, the U.S. economy has grown an average of 3.28% per fiscal year. Since 1948, what Republican President recorded the best Average GDP growth during his tenure?

**Kropotkin** · 21st August 2011 05:50 PM

1965-1968 (Lyndon B. Johnson, Democrat), +5.05%
1948-1952 (Harry S. Truman, Democrat), +4.82%
1961-1964 (John F. Kennedy / Lyndon B. Johnson, Democrat), +4.65%
1993-2000 (Bill Clinton, Democrat), 3.88%
1981-1988 (Ronald Reagan, Republican), 3.4%
1977-1980 (Jimmy Carter, Democrat), +3.25%
1953-1960 (Dwight D. Eisenhower, Republican), +3%
1969-1972 (Richard Nixon, Republican), +3%
1973-1976 (Richard Nixon / Gerald Ford, Republican), +2.6%
1989-1992 (George H. W. Bush, Republican), 2.17%
2001-2008 (George W. Bush, Republican), +2.09%

Very impressive record the GOP has.

**Coolio** · 21st August 2011 06:01 PM

Listed below is worst year for the US economy since 1948:

1) 2009, -2.6%, Barack Obama (Democrat)

**April15** · 21st August 2011 06:06 PM

That The Ray Goon had any increase is amazing to me as just about everybody I knew at that time was having money problems and bankruptcies. Work was hard to come by too.

**Coolio** · 21st August 2011 06:15 PM

Originally Posted by April15

That The Ray Goon had any increase is amazing to me as just about everybody I knew at that time was having money problems and bankruptcies. Work was hard to come by too.

Reagan's economy averaged 3.4% Average GDP per fiscal year, higher than Carter's and above the 3.28% (Average GDP growth) dating as far back as 1948.

**April15** · 21st August 2011 06:21 PM

Originally Posted by Coolio

Reagan's economy averaged 3.4% Average GDP per fiscal year, higher than Carter's and above the 3.28% (Average GDP growth) dating as far back as 1948.

I can tell you it sure didn't work out that way for anyone I knew at the time. Life was better with Carter.

**Kropotkin** · 21st August 2011 06:22 PM

Originally Posted by Coolio

Reagan's economy averaged 3.4% Average GDP per fiscal year, higher than Carter's and above the 3.28% (Average GDP growth) dating as far back as 1948.

Barely (0.15%) better than Carter, and worse than every other Democratic president since World War II.

**Coolio** · 21st August 2011 06:28 PM

Originally Posted by Kropotkin

Barely (0.15%) better than Carter, and worse than every other Democratic president since World War II.

Ronald Reagan's 1984 economy produced a superior 7.2% Average GDP annual growth, holds the #3 spot (tied with Dwight Eisenhower) for the best economies recorded (Average GDP growth) since 1948.

Duly note that Bill Clinton did not make that list.

**Kropotkin** · 21st August 2011 06:39 PM

Originally Posted by Coolio

Ronald Reagan's 1984 economy produced a superior 7.2% Average GDP annual growth, holds the #3 spot (tied with Dwight Eisenhower) for the best economies recorded (Average GDP growth) since 1948.

Behind two Truman years and tied with two Eisenhower years.

And Reagan's 1982 economy had the worst GDP growth between 1946 and 2009 at -1.9%.

I'm sorry, but what exactly is your point? There's no way to twist the numbers to show Reaganomics as having had some sort of miraculous effect on GDP. Economic growth under Reagan was average at best, while his policies grew massive deficits and widened economic inequality.

**Coolio** · 21st August 2011 06:48 PM

Originally Posted by Kropotkin

Behind two Truman years and tied with two Eisenhower years.

And Reagan's 1982 economy had the worst GDP growth between 1946 and 2009 at -1.9%.

I'm sorry, but what exactly is your point? There's no way to twist the numbers to show Reaganomics as having had some sort of miraculous effect on GDP. Economic growth under Reagan was average at best, while his policies grew massive deficits and widened economic inequality.

Ronald Reagan inherited a exceptionally high 7.5% nation wide unemployment rate coupled with an economy that declined in Real GDP growth by -0.3% and 13.5% inflation rate from the Carter administration. During the Carter years, the prime lending rate hit 21.5% in December 1980, the highest rate in U.S. history under any President. In 1983, Ronald Reagan's economic policies provided substantial economic breakthrough and the 1st quarter GDP grew an astonishing 5.1%.The U.S. economy grew at a 4.5% pace in 1983 and a remarkable 7.2 percent in 1984. In 2011, President Obama's fallacious economic polices produced a sluggish 1.8% 1st quarter GDP, a sorrowful 1.3% 2nd quarter GDP. The fact of the matter is that President Obama will never achieve the superlative economic success Reagan accomplished comparing fiscal years 1983, 1984 to Obama's fiscal years 2011, 2012.

* Carter's Misery Index scores a 16.27.