The track record Feel the boom

This chart shows U6, the broadest measure of unemployment and underemployment from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. (No data available before 1994.) You can still argue that presidents really don't have that much influence on the economy. But remember, Bush supporters eagerly claimed that downward stretch from 2003 to 2006 -- coinciding with the worst excesses of the housing bubble -- as proof that tax cuts work. Live by the business cycle, die by the business cycle.

[Click link to see the chart.]