America Was More Prosperous After Bush's Recession Than After Obama's Recovery
The Presidency of Jimmy Carter was doomed when Ronald Reagan asked voters this question: “Are you better off today than you were four years ago?”
The answer was a resounding “no!”
Mitt Romney could ask voters a similar question about Jimmy Carter Jr.’s presidency.
But there’s another kink that puts Obama’s economic performance into sharper relief, even against Jimmy Carter’s. Consider this question: “Are you better off after Obama’s recovery than you were at the bottom of Bush’s recession?”
For all of the blame popular media heap upon George W. Bush for the nation’s economic ills, the fact remains that the average American household was better off at the bottom of the recession than they are now three years after the recession’s official end.
According to a story in the Washington Post, household incomes fell 2.6% during the 2007 – 2009 recession. In the three years since the beginning of the Obama recovery, household incomes have fallen farther and faster than they did during the recession, plummeting another 4.8%.
Household incomes are now 8.1% below their peak of January 2000, just before the tech bubble burst.
And not only that, but minorities have been hardest hit. While white households saw their income fall by 5.2%, African-American household income fell by over 11%.
Obama’s misery index has hammered Americans unequally in other ways as well. Those entrepreneurs whom Obama disparaged with his “you didn’t build that” remark saw their incomes fall 9.4% to $66,752. Private sector employees, whom Obama said were “doing fine,” saw their incomes fall 4.5% to $63,800.
And those poor, suffering government sector employees, whom Obama sought to invigorate with his latest stimulus package, saw their incomes fall only 3.5%, to $77,998.
Yes, public sector employees make more than $14,000 per year more than the people who pay them. They make $11,000 per year more than those who risk everything to create the wealth that that government feeds off of.
There is one hot spot in the economy, and that’s the federal employment. There are now more than 500,000 federal civilian federal employees who are paid in excess of $100,000 annually. Is it any wonder that polls taken of Washington, DC voters show that Obama is favored over Mitt Romney by more than a 2-1 margin.
And falling incomes are only part of the misery you’re enduring.
Government policies are driving up the cost of food and fuel. In 2011, beef prices soared 10.2%. Pork was up 8.5%. The price of dairy products rose by 6.8%. Your eggs cost 9.2% more on December 31st, 2011 than they did on January 1st. Cooking oils gained 9.3%.
Grocery futures outperformed gold last year.
A big part of this food inflation is our idiotic biofuels program. We actually burn our food even though we have a sea of petroleum under our feet. Burning our food doesn’t just raise our grocery bills, it exacerbates food shortages around the world.
Obama’s response is raise the ethanol content of our gasoline from 10% to 15%.
On January 20th, 2009, the day that Barack Obama was inaugurated as our 44th president, you could have filled your car with gasoline that cost only $1.79 per gallon. It has more than doubled since.
The explanation given for the low price back in 2009 was that the economy was slow and demand was weak. But if people have even less money to spend today than they did when Obama took office, shouldn’t the price be even lower?
So after three years of economic recovery, the average American has less money in his paycheck. The basic necessities of life, food and fuel cost far more. What was there about the last 3 ½ years that anybody would want more of?
Is it any wonder that, according to a recent Pew survey, the middle class “has shrunk in size, fallen backward in income and wealth, and shed some — but by no means all — of its characteristic faith in the future.”
Obama did say that he wanted to fundamentally remake America.
Mission accomplished!
In 1980, Ronald Reagan distilled America’s economic circumstances and his remedy in to three sentences. "Recession is when your neighbor loses his job. Depression is when you lose yours. And recovery is when Jimmy Carter loses his."
The same applies to Jimmy Carter Jr.
Update: Sixty percent of the jobs lost were middle class jobs. Only 22% of the jobs created under Obama were middle class jobs. Can you say, "hamburger flipper?"
The answer was a resounding “no!”
Mitt Romney could ask voters a similar question about Jimmy Carter Jr.’s presidency.
But there’s another kink that puts Obama’s economic performance into sharper relief, even against Jimmy Carter’s. Consider this question: “Are you better off after Obama’s recovery than you were at the bottom of Bush’s recession?”
For all of the blame popular media heap upon George W. Bush for the nation’s economic ills, the fact remains that the average American household was better off at the bottom of the recession than they are now three years after the recession’s official end.
According to a story in the Washington Post, household incomes fell 2.6% during the 2007 – 2009 recession. In the three years since the beginning of the Obama recovery, household incomes have fallen farther and faster than they did during the recession, plummeting another 4.8%.
Household incomes are now 8.1% below their peak of January 2000, just before the tech bubble burst.
And not only that, but minorities have been hardest hit. While white households saw their income fall by 5.2%, African-American household income fell by over 11%.
Obama’s misery index has hammered Americans unequally in other ways as well. Those entrepreneurs whom Obama disparaged with his “you didn’t build that” remark saw their incomes fall 9.4% to $66,752. Private sector employees, whom Obama said were “doing fine,” saw their incomes fall 4.5% to $63,800.
And those poor, suffering government sector employees, whom Obama sought to invigorate with his latest stimulus package, saw their incomes fall only 3.5%, to $77,998.
Yes, public sector employees make more than $14,000 per year more than the people who pay them. They make $11,000 per year more than those who risk everything to create the wealth that that government feeds off of.
There is one hot spot in the economy, and that’s the federal employment. There are now more than 500,000 federal civilian federal employees who are paid in excess of $100,000 annually. Is it any wonder that polls taken of Washington, DC voters show that Obama is favored over Mitt Romney by more than a 2-1 margin.
And falling incomes are only part of the misery you’re enduring.
Government policies are driving up the cost of food and fuel. In 2011, beef prices soared 10.2%. Pork was up 8.5%. The price of dairy products rose by 6.8%. Your eggs cost 9.2% more on December 31st, 2011 than they did on January 1st. Cooking oils gained 9.3%.
Grocery futures outperformed gold last year.
A big part of this food inflation is our idiotic biofuels program. We actually burn our food even though we have a sea of petroleum under our feet. Burning our food doesn’t just raise our grocery bills, it exacerbates food shortages around the world.
Obama’s response is raise the ethanol content of our gasoline from 10% to 15%.
On January 20th, 2009, the day that Barack Obama was inaugurated as our 44th president, you could have filled your car with gasoline that cost only $1.79 per gallon. It has more than doubled since.
The explanation given for the low price back in 2009 was that the economy was slow and demand was weak. But if people have even less money to spend today than they did when Obama took office, shouldn’t the price be even lower?
So after three years of economic recovery, the average American has less money in his paycheck. The basic necessities of life, food and fuel cost far more. What was there about the last 3 ½ years that anybody would want more of?
Is it any wonder that, according to a recent Pew survey, the middle class “has shrunk in size, fallen backward in income and wealth, and shed some — but by no means all — of its characteristic faith in the future.”
Obama did say that he wanted to fundamentally remake America.
Mission accomplished!
In 1980, Ronald Reagan distilled America’s economic circumstances and his remedy in to three sentences. "Recession is when your neighbor loses his job. Depression is when you lose yours. And recovery is when Jimmy Carter loses his."
The same applies to Jimmy Carter Jr.
Update: Sixty percent of the jobs lost were middle class jobs. Only 22% of the jobs created under Obama were middle class jobs. Can you say, "hamburger flipper?"
Meanwhile, the hapless White House spokeschild Jay Carney is challenged to explain this - and can't. So he falls back on the old reliable: Blame Bush.
posted by Michael at
11:59 PM
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