In Jan, 2007, the Democrats took control of the Senate and the House. Prior to then, the unemployment rate (U-3 calculation) was 4.6 percent, GDP growth averaged about 4 percent, government deficit spending was cut to $160 billion, and America was feeling good.
From January 2007 to January 2009, the last two years of President Bush’s term, the economy fell apart as the Democrats ran Congress. Even with that, the U-3 unemployment rate for the eight years of Bush averaged 5.2 percent (including the recession left by Clinton at the end of his term and the recession caused by 9/11) as compared to an average unemployment rate for the eight years of Clinton of 5.1 percent.
Despite the statistical facts, many Americans have the misconception that the economy was better under Clinton than under Bush. And many of them are making excuses about the negative results from this Obama administration.
Obama promised in 2008 that he would keep the unemployment rate (U-3) under 8 percent if he were elected. As a member of the Senate, he was well aware of what he would inherit in the economy when he made that promise. He also promised to cut the federal deficit in half, to bring more transparency to government, to unify America and to eliminate cronyism.
For his first 43 months in office, Obama had a Democrat-controlled Senate. For the first 24 months, he had a House that was controlled by Democrats and a super majority of Democrats in the Senate that was filibuster proof. That Democrat-controlled Congress of 2009-2010 passed Obamacare without any Republican support. It could have given Obama anything that he wanted.
During these 43 months of Obama, the U-3 unemployment rate averaged 9.1 percent and exceeded 10 percent at times (today, it is 8.3 percent), compared to Clinton at 5.1, Bush at 5.2 and his promise not to let it exceed 8 percent. The federal debt has grown by more than $1 trillion per year.
But that is not the whole story. Even though there are 11 million more people in America than when Obama took office, there are 2 million fewer people who are working. The Labor Department, which reports to the White House, has systematically taken off the rolls people available for work to artificially hold down the U-3 unemployment rate. If the same number of people available for work was held constant to January 2009, with the additional 11 million in population, then the unemployment rate would be over 11 percent. But the Obama-controlled Labor Department is spinning the numbers for political reasons.
John Carney, in his article for CNBC on Aug 3, 2012, “Real Unemployment Rate Shows far more Jobless,” states that the real unemployment rate (U-6) is more like 15 percent. That means that one out of every seven people who qualify to work is unemployed. Estimates of the underemployment/unemployment rate are around 25 percent. One out of four Americans in the labor pool are either unemployed or underemployed. One out of four.
On top of that, in 2008, Obama demonized Bush as being “unpatriotic” for allowing the national debt to grow $4 trillion during the eight years of Bush. The national debt increased more than $5 trillion in the 43 months of Obama. So is Obama more “unpatriotic” for letting the debt grow more than twice as fast as Bush?
What do we have from the 43 months of Obama?
- Obamacare. The OMB states that Obamacare will increase costs to America by another $2.6 trillion over the next 10 years. While an additional 11 million people will have “insurance,” no additional people will receive “health care” that did not have “health care” before Obamacare. And Obamacare was passed by Democrats without any compromises to Republicans to get bipartisan approval.
- More government, more government debt and more government spending.
- A more polarized America. Attacks on religion. Pandering to feminists. Race bating. Class warfare. Solyndra. GM bailout (current stock price of 19 vs IPO of 31).
- Fewer people working.
- GDP growth that is about the same as inflation; therefore, real GDP growth is stagnant.
- A complete lack of transparency (Fast and Furious, White House security leaks, passports, college transcripts, college applications).
- Decrease to the personal wealth of the average American of about 40 percent – especially to home values.
- Decrease to real wages of 10 percent.
- Broken promises while Obama blames everyone except himself for his failures.
- According to Rasmussen Polls, an all-time low in the confidence for the future of America.
How did this happen? Obama is the first president in history without any executive experience before taking office. America can never let that happen again. President of the United States is an executive position, and that requires executive experience to do a good job.
America used a lower set of criteria to elect the first black president (affirmative action), and America is now paying a price for its bad decision. America did not even demand to see his sealed college transcripts to see how smart he really is.
Barack Hussein Obama, the first president without any executive experience of any kind, must be removed from office so we can save America from any more of his destruction.
