"By every economic measure, we are better off now than we were when I took office. You wouldn't know it, but we are."
President Obama, June 27, 2014
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President Obama, the most partisan politician to ever serve as president of the United States, is on a new campaign tour of the country to blame Republicans for all woes -- while simultaneously claiming Americans have never had it so good.
"Over the past 51 months, our businesses have created 9.4 million new jobs," he said Friday at a campaign stop in Minnesota. "Our housing market is rebounding. Our auto industry is booming. Our manufacturing sector is adding jobs for the first time since the 1990s. We've made our tax code fairer. We've cut our deficits by more than half. More than 8 million Americans have signed up for private insurance plans through the Affordable Care Act."
Of course, as usual with the president, none of that is true. In 2007, there were 146.66 million Americans employed. Last month, there were 145.77 million people in the work force. But it's all worse than that. The labor force participation rate was dropped more than 3 percentage points, which equals nearly 8 million people. Now, just 62.8 percent of work-age Americans hold jobs, a dismal number that's the lowest in 35 years.
What's more, Candidate Obama (is he ever anything else?) promised an unemployment rate of 5 percent as the impetus to pass his $1 trillion stimulus plan. While his minions cooking the books claim the rate is now 6.3 percent, millions of Americans have simply fallen out of the work force, disappeared like leftists in the Salvador Allende's Chile. And there's a reason he picks 51 months -- he's been president for 64 months.
Meanwhile, house sales nationwide have fallen 5 percent versus last year, according to the National Association of Realtors. The Washington Post, one of the most Obama-friendly newspapers in the country, offered this headline: "Two charts that show why the housing market is off track." Right now, home sales are running at 2010 levels -- just before they plunged.
The number of employees in the auto industry, while rising, is still below numbers in 2008. that year, there were 880,000 workers in manufacturing; today, there are 850,000. Dealers are also down from 1.83 million to 1.82 million. Not bad, but not good if you gauged for at least 3 percent growth each year for the last six. Employment has grown -- but is still short of 2008.
On the deficit, Obama fudges the numbers as only he can. He ran a $1 trillion-plus deficit each of his first years in office, then in fiscal year 2013, that dropped to $680 billion (so roughly a 32 percent drop). The "cut our deficits by more than half" comes from comparing that number to the deficit he inherited when he took office, $1.4 trillion. But Obama's $680 billion deficit last year is still the highest in U.S. history, $220 billion higher than his predeccessor's highest deficit.
Most astute Americans know the Obamacare numbers are absurd. But Obama also words the claim carefully, as skilled liars often do. "More than 8 million Americans have signed up for private insurance plans through the Affordable Care Act." While no administration official has ever provided proof of that claim, millions were forced out of their insurance plans. Some 6.3 million were either Medicaid renewals or already-insured children who had their coverage extended under the law.
One thing Obama didn't mention in Minnesota was the brand new number released on the gross domestic product, a key indicator on the state of the U.S. economy. Obama economic gurus had predicted 2.6 percent growth. When they released a preliminary number for the first three months of 2014, those gurus said the economy had grown by .1 percent. When they revised the number a month later, that number dropped to 1 1 percent. And last week, the final number came out -- the economy contracted by 2.9 percent -- the worst since Obama took office.
So despite Obama's lofty claims, the economy has done -- nothing. It's right where it was when he took office -- and getting worse. Still, he plans events all next week pushing the economy and his policies. And there's only one reason: It's election time. But his claims are going to be a hard sell across the country, and he knows it. He's just hoping no one takes the time to fact check his rosy scenarios.
President Obama, June 27, 2014
**************
President Obama, the most partisan politician to ever serve as president of the United States, is on a new campaign tour of the country to blame Republicans for all woes -- while simultaneously claiming Americans have never had it so good.
"Over the past 51 months, our businesses have created 9.4 million new jobs," he said Friday at a campaign stop in Minnesota. "Our housing market is rebounding. Our auto industry is booming. Our manufacturing sector is adding jobs for the first time since the 1990s. We've made our tax code fairer. We've cut our deficits by more than half. More than 8 million Americans have signed up for private insurance plans through the Affordable Care Act."
Of course, as usual with the president, none of that is true. In 2007, there were 146.66 million Americans employed. Last month, there were 145.77 million people in the work force. But it's all worse than that. The labor force participation rate was dropped more than 3 percentage points, which equals nearly 8 million people. Now, just 62.8 percent of work-age Americans hold jobs, a dismal number that's the lowest in 35 years.
What's more, Candidate Obama (is he ever anything else?) promised an unemployment rate of 5 percent as the impetus to pass his $1 trillion stimulus plan. While his minions cooking the books claim the rate is now 6.3 percent, millions of Americans have simply fallen out of the work force, disappeared like leftists in the Salvador Allende's Chile. And there's a reason he picks 51 months -- he's been president for 64 months.
Meanwhile, house sales nationwide have fallen 5 percent versus last year, according to the National Association of Realtors. The Washington Post, one of the most Obama-friendly newspapers in the country, offered this headline: "Two charts that show why the housing market is off track." Right now, home sales are running at 2010 levels -- just before they plunged.
The number of employees in the auto industry, while rising, is still below numbers in 2008. that year, there were 880,000 workers in manufacturing; today, there are 850,000. Dealers are also down from 1.83 million to 1.82 million. Not bad, but not good if you gauged for at least 3 percent growth each year for the last six. Employment has grown -- but is still short of 2008.
On the deficit, Obama fudges the numbers as only he can. He ran a $1 trillion-plus deficit each of his first years in office, then in fiscal year 2013, that dropped to $680 billion (so roughly a 32 percent drop). The "cut our deficits by more than half" comes from comparing that number to the deficit he inherited when he took office, $1.4 trillion. But Obama's $680 billion deficit last year is still the highest in U.S. history, $220 billion higher than his predeccessor's highest deficit.
Most astute Americans know the Obamacare numbers are absurd. But Obama also words the claim carefully, as skilled liars often do. "More than 8 million Americans have signed up for private insurance plans through the Affordable Care Act." While no administration official has ever provided proof of that claim, millions were forced out of their insurance plans. Some 6.3 million were either Medicaid renewals or already-insured children who had their coverage extended under the law.
One thing Obama didn't mention in Minnesota was the brand new number released on the gross domestic product, a key indicator on the state of the U.S. economy. Obama economic gurus had predicted 2.6 percent growth. When they released a preliminary number for the first three months of 2014, those gurus said the economy had grown by .1 percent. When they revised the number a month later, that number dropped to 1 1 percent. And last week, the final number came out -- the economy contracted by 2.9 percent -- the worst since Obama took office.
So despite Obama's lofty claims, the economy has done -- nothing. It's right where it was when he took office -- and getting worse. Still, he plans events all next week pushing the economy and his policies. And there's only one reason: It's election time. But his claims are going to be a hard sell across the country, and he knows it. He's just hoping no one takes the time to fact check his rosy scenarios.
