The President of the United States is the most powerful person in the world. Whether or not it’s fair, when things go well, the President gets the credit and when things go poorly, the President gets the blame. In any given year or administration, it is possible that the Speaker of the House, the Chair of the Federal Reserve, the CEOs of the energy or auto industries (among others), the various governors, or some other person or group might have more influence on this or that national indicator. Nevertheless, I’m presenting statistics based on the last three presidential administrations. They each comprise eight years, so comparing them is relatively fair, even though the three presidents faced different internal and external obstacles and problems. I’m not making any value judgments. You can do that for yourself, though I’m guessing that these statistics will not change what you already think about Presidents Clinton, Bush, and Obama.
All statistics are presented in the same order: number at beginning of the presidency or in the previous year, number at the end of the presidency or in the last year of the presidency, and the percentage change. I collected information as of 12/31 because most information is available on an yearly basis. President Clinton was in office (for our purposes) from 12/31/1992 through 12/31/2000 and President Bush from 12/31/2000 through 12/31/2008. For President Obama, I went with the most recent statistics available; obviously we don’t yet have a full eight years for him.
All categories are presented separately with a citation to the source.
U.S. Population (millions) http://www.multpl.com/united-states-population/table
Bill Clinton 261 283 8.45%
George W. Bush 283 308 8.72%
Barrack Obama 308 323 4.87%
Nominal Gross Domestic Product ($ trillions) https://www.thebalance.com/us-gdp-by-year-3305543
Bill Clinton 6.539 10.285 57.29%
George W. Bush 10.285 14.719 43.11%
Barrack Obama 14.719 18.036 22.54%
Gross Domestic Product per Capita https://www.thebalance.com/us-gdp-by-year-3305543
Bill Clinton $37,171 $44,492 19.70%
George W. Bush $44,492 $46,951 5.50%
Barrack Obama $46,951 $51,123 8.91%
Total Federal Debt ($ trillions) http://www.polidiotic.com/by-the-numbers/us-national-debt-by-year/
Bill Clinton 4.065 5.674 39.58%
George W. Bush 5.674 10.024 76.67%
Barrack Obama 10.024 19.392 93.46%
Annual Federal Deficit ($ billions, change in dollars, not percentage) http://www.usgovernmentspending.com/spending_chart_1960_2021USb_XXs2li111mcn_G0f
Bill Clinton 290 -236 -526
George W. Bush -236 459 695
Barrack Obama 459 616 157
Unemployment Rate http://www.multpl.com/unemployment/table
Bill Clinton 7.3% 4.2% -42.5%
George W. Bush 4.2% 7.9% 88.1%
Barrack Obama 7.9% 4.9% -38.0%
Divorces (thousands) http://www.infoplease.com/ipa/A0005044.html http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/nvss/marriage_divorce_tables.htm
Bill Clinton 1,215 944 -22.3%
George W. Bush 944 844 -10.6%
Barrack Obama 844 814 -3.5%
People in Federal and State Prison (thousands) http://www.bjs.gov/content/pub/pdf/p92.pdf https://www.bjs.gov/content/pub/pdf/p08.pdf https://www.bjs.gov/content/pub/pdf/p00.pdf https://www.bjs.gov/content/pub/pdf/p14.pdf
Bill Clinton 884 1,381 56.2%
George W. Bush 1,381 1,610 16.6%
Barrack Obama 1,610 1,562 -3.0%
Military Spending ($ millions) https://www.whitehouse.gov/omb/budget/Historicals
Bill Clinton 298,356 274,769 -6.9%
George W. Bush 274,769 616,066 224.2%
Barrack Obama 616,066 604,452 -2.4%
Homicides committed with a gun http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/fastats/homicide.htm http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/statements/2014/jun/16/facebook-posts/viral-meme-says-gun-homicides-are-down-49-percent-/
Bill Clinton 17,488 10,828 -38.1%
George W. Bush 10,828 12,632 16.7%
Barrack Obama 12,632 10,945 -13.6%
High School Graduation Rate http://nces.ed.gov/programs/digest/d15/tables/dt15_219.10.asp
Bill Clinton 71.9% 69.8% -2.9%
George W. Bush 69.8% 74.7% 7.0%
Barrack Obama 74.7% 83.4% 11.6%
Thank you for your suggestions. Needless to say, I did not conduct any of the underlying research. Using just the starting and end points is not necessarily the best way to present this information, but it is straightforward. I could have gone on and on and on, but decided to spare you (and myself) that fate.
Finally, these statistics are not intended to provide a comprehensive picture of the years 1993 to the present. Rather they provide a mere snapshot of a few things that happened during the presidencies of Presidents Clinton, Bush, and Obama. I do not ascribe credit or blame, but you can.
I think a more interesting presentation would have been a continuous timeline graph demarcated with the three presidencies. A little more work, but a much better visual.
My spreadsheet capabilities aren’t at your level. Maybe next time we see each other you can give me a quick tutorial. Agree that starting point to end point chart is less appealing than a graph.
A lot of nice information. Some of it is telling, some of it is confusing. Thanks for putting this together.
Sorry to confuse — or is that my mission. There is no clear conclusion to be drawn about these three presidents even is they were wholly responsible for the changes indicated.