a shrine of insignificance

So I’ve seen a lot of people who, after the GOP having control of Congress and the Presidency for 6 of the last 8 years, claim that the Government works better when Congress and the President are opposing parties. This did not seem to be true to me. Presidents are more flexible to respond to the current situation when Congress is not out to block his every move like is often the case with opposing parties. This happened even during FDR’s first term. So I decided to chart the WSJ’s ranking as opposed to the percent of an administration where the President’s party controlled Congress.

The chart shows that their is a slight correlation between percent control and ranking but in the opposite direction of what others have claimed. However, the spread of the data makes me think that their is no relation.

Filed under: General on November 23rd, 2008