by Scott L. Vanatter
What kind of economy did Obama inherit? Brit Hume put it this way:
“A central premise of the Obama campaign is that he inherited an economy in free fall, pulled it back from the brink and set it on the right path. But consider this. The economy fell into recession more than a year before Mr. Obama took office. By the time he was inaugurated the worst of it was over, the economy was still shrinking, but the steepest decline had occurred in the final quarter of the year 2008. It shrank less in the first quarter of 2009 and by June of ‘09 it began to grow again marking the official end of the recession. Mind you, this occurred before almost any of the massive stimulus spending Mr. Obama has signed into law had taken affect. ‘Yes,’ you might say, but in terms of job losses the worst was still to come when Mr. Obama came in.’ But that’s not so either. More than half the 8.7 million jobs lost as a result of the recession had been lost by inauguration day.”
How weak is Obama’s economic recovery? Continue reading
Last Friday, a few days after Obama’s debate debacle, the Administration released a jobs report that claimed 114,000 jobs were created. That number is well below the number of jobs needed just to keep up with population growth. It is also well below the average for the past two years. Yet we are to believe that those anemic and pathetic jobs numbers caused the biggest one month drop in unempoloyment in 29 years. That simply does not add up. The math does not work. There is something wrong with the report. Perhaps it was an innocent mistake or some weird statistical anaomoly. But it would be foolish to assume that. The more likely explanation is that the administration monkeyed with the numbers to make them look good and give Obama some much needed relief as his campaign was in free fall.
Below is what Jack Welch has to say about the jobs report and the media’s attempt to cow him. Very interesting reading! And very revealing! Continue reading
by Tony Lee
Bill Clinton, President Barack Obama, and liberal think tanks have claimed Mitt Romney’s plan to cut tax rates across the board by 20 percent is bad arithmetic, but a Princeton economics professor, Harvey Rosen, examined Romney’s proposals in a paper and concluded Romney’s plan would work. The economy would have to grow by 3 percentage points more over the term of his plan than it would have without his plan. Continue reading
The Sluggish Economy: The September jobs report shows a net increase of only 114,000 jobs – a number far below even the anemic jobs numbers of the past two years and well below what is needed to keep up with population growth. Thus, one would expect the unemployment rate to go up slightly or stay at 8.1 percent. However, somehow the Obama Labor Department claims those pathetic numbers lowered the jobless rate to 7.8. Sounds like magic math. Other polling services who track unemployment say the rate of unemployment went up slightly in September, not down. Who are you going to believe? Obama’s Labor Department? Or your own eyes?
by George Landrith
President Barack Obama and Vice President Joe Biden never miss a chance to tell us that the economy is moving in the right direction. They claim they need more time to pull the nation out of the recession that began in 2008.
There are several problems with this line of argument. First, Obama said he would solve this problem in his first term and cut the deficit in half. He told us if he didn’t solve the problem, he would be a one-term president. Second, Obama ran for office knowing the economy was bad and he won because he convinced more voters that he would fix it. Obama got everything he wanted in his first two years because he had a compliant Democrat Congress. He spent hundreds of billions of dollars in stimulus and bailouts. The only verifiable result is massive debt that saddles the economy and slows future growth. Third, the biggest problem with claiming that Obama is moving us forward is that it is not true. In fact, things are getting worse. Continue reading
Congress Must Act to Lift Restrictions on Consumer Choice and Access to Credit in the Market
by Horace Cooper
Much has been written about the over-reach of Dodd-Frank and the drag that law and its progeny will have on the financial services sector, the economic recovery, and job creation. Evidence continues to mount that the specter of over-regulation is crowding out free market solutions and restricting credit in the markets. Worse, the negative effects of government interference in the financial services industry extend well beyond large commercial banks deemed “too big to fail.” A case in point is credit unions.
Credit unions serve an important source of credit for consumers and small businesses. Historically this has been especially true during economic downturns, when the banking industry either tightened or in other ways limited credit. Continue reading
by Investors.com
President Obama has been running around lately claiming he’s cut small business taxes more than a dozen times. That no doubt would be news to the nation’s small business owners.
Obama’s been bragging about these tax cuts lately because his soak-the-rich income-tax hikes would hit plenty of small businesses, most of whom file taxes as individuals.
Obama has tried to downplay this, claiming just 3% of small businesses would face higher tax bills. (Even if that were true, it would mean 900,000-plus small firms would see their tax bills climb.) Continue reading
by George C. Landrith
President Barack Obama has been criticized by both supporters and critics for making and then breaking too many campaign promises. Whether it was closing Guantanamo, ending the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, allowing five days of public debate before signing legislation, slashing earmarks, or permitting no tax increases on those earning less than $250,000, President Obama has fallen far short of his promises. But there is one promise he made as candidate Obama that he has kept as President Obama – dramatically increasing the cost of energy. Continue reading
by George Landrith
President Barack Obama continues to argue against keeping taxes low to spur economic growth and job creation. At the same time, he argues against significantly cutting government spending to solve our huge deficits. Obama said “ [the philosophy of low taxes and cutting wasteful spending] fits well on a bumper sticker…. But it doesn’t work. It’s never worked.” Obama is wrong. It clearly has worked. And it is comical to listen to the guy who ran on the slogan of “hope” and “change” talk dismissively about bumper stickers.
During the past decade, if government had kept taxes low, kept government spending at historically reasonable levels, and not abused government power to push unwise and unsustainable mortgage and banking practices, we would not have the problems we have today. Continue reading
by George Landrith
Barack Obama is nearing the fourth year of his presidency and the economy continues to languish as evidenced by the fact that the unemployment rate “unexpectedly” shot back up and has been above 8 percent for his entire presidency. The truth is there is nothing “unexpected” about our current economic woes. In fact, for those who understand the fundamentals of economics, the current high unemployment rates are both predictable and expected. The truth is – Obama’s policies and his politics could not have produced economic recovery any more than dirt and water can produce a tasty three-layer cake. Continue reading
by George Landrith
Now that the 2012 election is less than a year away, President Barack Obama is finally at least talking about jobs on a regular basis. However, Obama’s new found interest in talking about jobs is driven by the election calendar. Where was his focus on jobs the past three years?
Obama won election more than three years ago, promising to fix America’s economic woes. For the first two years of his presidency, Obama had a willing and compliant Democrat-controlled Congress that unflinchingly did his bidding. Rather than focusing on jobs, he passed a $3.4 trillion federal budget, one-third of which was borrowed money. Continue reading
by Peter Ferrara
On Inauguration Day, 2009, President Obama seemed so politically blessed by the timing of developing economic trends. I expected that based on American economic history, recovery from the recession should have occurred some time during 2009. Even the longest previous recession since the Great Depression would have resulted in a recovery in summer 2009, as the recession began in December 2007.
Moreover, prior American history had shown that the deeper the recession the stronger the recovery. So I was expecting President Obama to pass his economic recovery plan, as foolhardy and ineffective as I believed it would be, and then to ride a wave of adulation as the economy roared back later in the year, which it should have done just on its own according to long established rhythms of the business cycle. Continue reading