Calculated Risk offers two instructive charts on private-sector and public-sector job growth under the last five presidents. First, the private sector:
So far, the economy has created more private-sector jobs under President Barack Obama (dark blue line) than it did under either President George H. W. Bush (purple line) or President George W. Bush (red line). The Obama economy has managed this feat despite starting with a much sharper recession than either Bush faced.
Now the public sector:
Smooth out the Census spike, and the Obama economy has followed a downward trend in public-sector employment that is found in no other recent presidency besides the first part of the Reagan years, which coincided with a recession. The Bushes, faced with recession, managed to maintain growth in government employment.
Once again, economic data prove that those of you complaining about big government are viewing the charts upside down. Under President Barack Obama, government has gotten smaller.
Reagan's first term economy was a disaster precisely because of Republican instigated austerity, the same kind they have been imposing on the country today. The difference is Fed policy has come to the rescue today.
You will notice Reagan came in with a growing private job market. That wouldn't last long, because, you will also notice public jobs started declining immediately. Yes, loss of public jobs had a negative impact on private jobs. The job losses were forced by Reagan and the Republicans onto federal agencies and local and state governments first, and then infected the private market. Of course, the Fed driving up the interest rates also had an impact on job losses, as did federal trade and labor policies. (This, by the way, is the current Republican prescription even though the Fed in the early 1980s faced out-of-control inflation, which we don't face today.)
Kissing cousins beating each other a little less badly than the other? One of the last jobs reports stated of the 800 thousand plus new jobs, 320,000 were government.
Not hard to do when Obamacare turns what used to be one full time job into 3 part timers...
Mostly false, or at best anecdotal, Dick:http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/statements/2013/nov/06/americans-prosperity/conservative-group-says-mary-landrieu-backs-obamac/