I saw some stats collected from the Economic Report Of The President on the tax/spend trends of the two parties postwar. They suggest Republicans do indeed reduce taxes, but they don't actually reduce spending.
http://www.slate.com/id/2199810/
This is another article that suggests from the raw data that the US economy not only has historically grown more under the Democrats, but but more equally too.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/08/31/bu...in&oref=slogin