January 19, 2014

What Republican Senate Control Means for America

By Ben Voth
One of the most important memes of political intellectual culture today is that the Republicans are no better than the Democrats.  Conservatives express this vividly in the notion of RINOs (Republican in name only).  Is this historically true?  More specifically, what might a Republican-controlled Senate mean for American life beginning in 2015? Since 1980, Republicans have controlled the Senate from 1981 until 1987, from 1995 until 2000, and from 2003 until 2007.  The largest majority for Republicans was 55, held 1997 to 2001 and again in 2005 to 2007.  If electing Republicans to the Senate makes no difference, then we should be able to see in the past 30 years that Republican control of the Senate renders no meaningful difference in several areas -- among them poverty, unemployment, and the deficit.  Poverty The United States experienced the most dramatic reduction in poverty from 1996 to 2000.  Poverty in the...(Read Full Article)