economic policy

I have written before about the myth of Republican fiscal responsibility. Simply put, the government is run better under Democratic control or split control (with both parties having a say) than when Republicans are dominant. This is most easily seen with this graph:

On state levels also, you have a better shot of getting a balanced budget under moderate Democrats than under Republicans.

But what about the accusation, made by Al Gore regarding Bush's then proposed tax cuts for the very wealthy? Was Al Gore right that Bush's economic policies will only help the very rich? Jerome a Paris over at Daily Kos presents a graph that proves Al Gore pretty much right. During the period of maximal Republican dominance, when trickle down economics were once again applied to the US economy, growth helped only the richest Americans.

Here's the graph:

Median wages (the wage that half of Americans earn more than, and half earn less than...in other words the MIDDLE wage, not the average wage) stagnated despite economic growth. Most Americans earned the same wage that they did before the period of growth.