Reagan and Obama both started their terms with recessions; Obama in 2009 and Reagan in 1982, which makes for a useful out-of-the-trough comparison for economic growth afterward. Obama's recession was deeper, giving him an advantage at the start, but even with the handicap, Reagan outperformed Obama by two to one in GDP growth and median personal income growth.
The years following the recessions (1983-1988 and 2010-2016), Reagan's economy grew at an average of 4.55% annually while Obama's economy grew at an average of 2.14% annually.
Obama's best year for growth, 2.9% in 2015, was worse than all but two of Reagan's years (1981-1982). After the recession, Reagan spent every year between 3.5% and 7.3% GDP growth. Obama's post-recession growth ranged from 1.5% to 2.9%.
But let's suppose you don't care about GDP. Let's look at median personal income; what the guy in the middle takes home, adjusted for inflation.
Real median personal income under Reagan increased from $21,627 to $25,905 in 2016 dollars, an increase of 19.7%. If we just count the post-recession years, it grew by 16.2%.
Under Obama, real median personal income increased from $29,235 to $31,099 in 2016 dollars, an increase of 6.3%. If we just count the post-recession years, it grew by 7.9%.
Or maybe you don't care about GDP or how the middle class is doing; you'd rather just attribute Reagan's success to deficit spending, and think that Obama would have been successful if he just spent some more money. Well, Reagan increased the national debt by 19% of GDP. Obama increased the national debt by 26% of GDP.
The people who call Reagan's policies a failure never seem to mention that median personal income and the economy as a whole grew more than twice as much under Reagan's recovery as they did under Obama's recovery. Obama's most notable economic achievement is being the only president since we started tracking GDP in 1929 to never have a single year of 3% GDP growth, and he had two terms to manage not to do it.
The years following the recessions (1983-1988 and 2010-2016), Reagan's economy grew at an average of 4.55% annually while Obama's economy grew at an average of 2.14% annually.
Obama's best year for growth, 2.9% in 2015, was worse than all but two of Reagan's years (1981-1982). After the recession, Reagan spent every year between 3.5% and 7.3% GDP growth. Obama's post-recession growth ranged from 1.5% to 2.9%.
But let's suppose you don't care about GDP. Let's look at median personal income; what the guy in the middle takes home, adjusted for inflation.
Real median personal income under Reagan increased from $21,627 to $25,905 in 2016 dollars, an increase of 19.7%. If we just count the post-recession years, it grew by 16.2%.
Under Obama, real median personal income increased from $29,235 to $31,099 in 2016 dollars, an increase of 6.3%. If we just count the post-recession years, it grew by 7.9%.
Or maybe you don't care about GDP or how the middle class is doing; you'd rather just attribute Reagan's success to deficit spending, and think that Obama would have been successful if he just spent some more money. Well, Reagan increased the national debt by 19% of GDP. Obama increased the national debt by 26% of GDP.
The people who call Reagan's policies a failure never seem to mention that median personal income and the economy as a whole grew more than twice as much under Reagan's recovery as they did under Obama's recovery. Obama's most notable economic achievement is being the only president since we started tracking GDP in 1929 to never have a single year of 3% GDP growth, and he had two terms to manage not to do it.
