Economy and political parties in the US

One of the arguments Republicans always use to get people to vote for them rather than Democrats, is that government spending will spin out of control when Democrats are in power. Those of us, who are a bit more grounded in reality, know that this is not exactly something that there is any historical evidence for. Rather, it seems like, that when Democrats are in power, the economy is doing better, and when Republicans are in power, the spending is out of control.

Of course, this is only obvious when looking at the party who holds the presidency, and many argue that the sound economics under Democratic presidents are more due to Republican influence from the Congress. This claim is much harder to evaluate, and most of us don't get around to doing that. Thankfully, someone has gotten around to make full in-dept analysis of the correlation between political parties in power, and the US economy, which also takes such things into consideration.

United States National Debt (1938 to Present) - An Analysis of the Presidents Who Are Responsible for the Borrowing by Steve McGourty

It was last updated in May, 2007, but I assure you that the picture hasn't changed much since then.

Unsurprisingly, it turns out that when Republicans have power of both the congress (in part or in full) and the presidency, the spending goes up.