THE STATE OF OUR ECOMONY…ACCORDING TO OBAMA…

It was with a smiling, for no apparent reason, ‘Slow Joe’ Biden standing behind him that Barry “Almighty” gave a little self-congratulatory speech, as nearly all of his speeches are, patting himself on the back and confidently declaring that “the facts don’t lie,” the American economy “is pretty darn good right now.”  Demonstrating that if it is anyone who is experiencing an alternative reality, it would be him and not millions of his fellow Americans.  Barry proceeded to take credit for what he says is the excellent state of the economy and, of course, attributing it all to his brilliantly conceived, and even more brilliantly executed, economic plans.  Barry said, and with a straight face no less, “The fact of the matter is, is that the plans that we have put in place to grow the economy have worked.”

Here is Barry’s speech about how he sees our economy:

“Well, I thought it might be useful to take a small break from the spectacle of the political season -- and now, I gather, O.J. -- to focus on something that really matters to the American people, and that is how is the economy doing and how is it affecting their lives.

This morning, we learned that the U.S. economy had created 242,000 jobs last month.  That’s two months in a row at the unemployment rate of below 5 percent.  And over the past three months, our workforce has grown by 1.5 million people.  That is progress.

Overall, America’s business has now created new jobs for 72 straight months, six straight years of job creation -- 14.3 million new jobs.  In fact, our businesses have created jobs every single month since I signed that job-killing Obamacare bill.

Think about this -- if somebody had told us seven years ago that we’d get to this point at a time when we were losing 800,000 jobs a month, and the unemployment rate hit 10 percent, we wouldn’t have believed them.  But today, America’s businesses are creating jobs at the fastest pace since the 1990s.  America’s workforce is growing at the fastest pace since the year 2000.  It is showing the kind of strength and durability that makes America’s economy right now the envy of the world despite the enormous headwinds that it’s receiving because of weaknesses in other parts of the world.

In other words, the numbers, the facts don’t lie.  And I think it’s useful, given that there seems to be an alternative reality out there from some of the political folks that America is down in the dumps.  It’s not.  America is pretty darn great right now, and making strides right now.  And small businesses and large businesses alike are hiring right now, and investing right now, and building this country brick by brick, block by block, neighborhood by neighborhood, all across the country.

And I don’t expect that these facts and this evidence will convince some of the politicians out there to change their doomsday rhetoric, talking about how terrible America is.  But the American people should be proud of what they have achieved, because this speaks to their resilience, innovation, creativity, risk-taking, and grit.

The fact of the matter is, is that the plans that we have put in place to grow the economy have worked.  They would work even faster if we did not have the kind of obstruction that we’ve seen in this town to prevent additional policies that would make a difference.  And there is going to be a debate going on around the budget in the coming months.  Republicans in Congress are, sadly, trying to cut some of the investments that could spur additional growth.  They are blocking things like an increase in the minimum wage, or more robust investment in jobs training, infrastructure, education that can continue to lift up wages and incomes -- an area, by the way, where we are not seeing the same kinds of pace that we want to see, and where, if we’re working together, we could be making a difference.

That’s what we should be debating.  That’s the debate that is worthy of the American people.  Not fantasy.  Not name-calling.  Not trying to talk down the American economy, but looking at the facts, understanding that we’ve made extraordinary progress in job growth; how can we continue to advance that, how can we make sure that people are successful in climbing the ladder of wage and income growth over the coming years; how do we make sure that we make this economy grow even faster.

And the kinds of proposals that we’ve put forward repeatedly in terms of rebuilding our infrastructure, improving our job-training system, lifting the minimum wage, dealing with things like family leave and paid leave, making sure that retirement accounts are more helpful to middle-class families and working families, making college more affordable -- those are all the things that are really going to make an enormous difference.  We’ve got to continue to push that agenda.  That’s what we should be talking about.  And that’s what I’m going to be talking about with my economic team here in the coming months. 

The notion that we would reverse the very policies that helped dig us out of a recession, reinstitute those that got us into a hole -- plans that are being currently proposed by Republicans in Congress and by some of the candidates for President -- that’s not the conversation we should be having.  That’s not the direction America should take.  And I’m looking forward to very forcefully making clear that what we have done has made a difference, and that there’s a huge gap between the rhetoric that’s going on out there and the reality of success that we’re seeing in America’s economy, even as we acknowledge that there’s more work that can be done to make sure that everybody is benefitting from that success.

Thank you very much, everybody.  Have a good weekend.”

So, can any of what Barry said here, actually be true?  Or, is what we have here nothing more than some weird economic fairytale.  Are our eyes and our wallets deceiving us all?  Did Barry oversee a new era of economic prosperity right under our noses and did we all somehow miss it?  Of course he didn’t.  Because this dream world of his is nothing less than a nightmare for millions of American who are now forced to work, one or more part-time jobs just to make ends meet, if they are able to find work at all.  And the continuing propaganda, whether coming from Barry or any of his many minions, that Barry has somehow managed to fully turn around the U.S. economy is just that, pure propaganda.  For one thing, I think most of us recognize the fact that the monthly unemployment numbers that are announced at the end of every month are nothing if not a work of pure fiction.

Barry likes to claim that HE “salvaged” the U.S. economy from “Bush’s failed policies.”  But when it comes to exactly what those “failed policies” were, there is always a certain vagueness. This is a relatively common debating tactic used by leftists when they have little of substance to say. They make big, blanket statements, devoid of any specifics, and hope that their message will stick before you notice that they never really said anything. I don’t disagree with the assertion that some of the policies implemented during the presidency of George W. Bush (notably the excessive deficit-spending and the expansion of the government footprint in the healthcare sphere) probably contributed to the lackluster economic growth during the Bush years. But, what’s never mentioned is the one policy that likely played the most significant role in the devastating economic collapse at the end of the Bush presidency, heavy government intervention in the housing market.

And let’s not forget that it was Democrats, primarily Jimmy ‘The Bonehead’ Carter and then ‘Slick Willie’ Clinton, together with their liberal activist core and courtesy of the Community Re-Investment Act, that pushed for the government to leave Fannie and Freddie alone DESPITE the many warnings that came from the Bush administration. These same Democrats blocked the many attempts by the Bush administration to head off the impending housing disaster. Don’t believe me because you’re a liberal who is vaccinated against facts and data? Then please take a look at this brief news-clip montage of Bush administration officials begging the congress and senate to act before a housing collapse occurred. But “it’s a Fox News clip” you say? Okay, here’s a New York Times piece which bypasses your liberal biases towards Fox News that says the same thing.

My second point is how Barry claims that the economy has been growing at a steady rate.  If I only learn one word a year for my first ten years of life I’m also learning at a “steady rate” but “steady” does not mean, by anyone’s definition, healthy.  Here are the hard facts. Barry’s economy has been a disaster and the average rate of growth during Barry’s tenure has been hovering around 2%. Yet, the average growth rate of the U.S. economy since we started keeping these statistics is over 3%.  Both Ronald Reagan and ‘Slick Willie’ Clinton were in office when our economy reached rates of growth of over 5% and 4% respectively.  Although I think it reasonable to argue that ‘Slick Willie’ was still reaping the benefits of Reagan’s policies.  While I suppose most Democrats would disagree with that assessment that doesn’t alter what most definitely is the case.        

My third point of dispute is that the unemployment rate has been reduced all the way down to the five percent level which economists view as ideal. Yes, the unemployment is down to the 5% level but doesn’t context matter?  I mean let’s be clear here, the reason that the unemployment rate is down, but the majority of Americans still feel like the economy is getting worse (check the polls if you dispute this), is that an astonishing 92% of the drop in the unemployment rate can be attributed to people LEAVING the work force, and only 7% can be attributed to actual job growth. Overseeing an economy where Americans are so frustrated by their job searches that they decide to exit the workforce in droves is not something to hang your presidential hat on.  But, you see, all of those folks who can’t find work, no longer exist to Barry.  You see, if they did, they’d mess up his numbers.

And the fourth, and final, point that I’d like to make, even though Barry doesn’t make mention of it in this particular speech, is something that I always find pretty humorous.  And it’s whenever Barry makes the claim that he has actually reduced the annual federal deficit and by a pretty significant percentage.  Because I’ve always wondered how it is that when he came into office the federal debt stood at a little over $10 Trillion.  And now, after having Barry at the helm for a tad bit over seven years now, the federal deficit stands at a little over $19 Trillion.  Now I realize I am a product of the New York state public school system, but for the life of me I can’t figure out how that can be seen as a reduction.  Far from a reduction, what we have here is the largest amount of red ink ever accumulated by any president in American history, even after adjusted for inflation.

Regardless of all the claims and endless propaganda, the fact of the matter is that for the last seven years what Barry has presided over is nothing more than an economic train wreck!  And no matter how hard I look, no matter how much slack I’m willing to provide to Barry, I see no real evidence that backs up any of Barry’s claims that he has somehow produced a booming economy.  What I see is a nation drowning in $19 trillion of debt, a ‘Kill Your Healthcare Scheme’ that was created on a foundation of progressive lies and continues to wreak havoc across the USA, an all-time high for our poverty level, an all-time high for those on food stamps, an all-time high for those not in the workforce and the allowing of illegal invaders to continue to invade, all equates to an economy that “is pretty darn good right now.”  Am I missing something here?  Is it me?  Because it’s just not making much sense to me.