Well here we are, three years into “Hope and Change”. It’s time to look at the track record of our beloved Dear Leader and see where we are. After all, the election of 2012 is less than a year away and maybe, just maybe, we should take a look at this guy. He’s been the leader of the free world for the past three years and wants to take a few more laps at the top. It might be a good idea to see how far we’ve come to date.
First, the economy. Unemployment is double what it was when Obama took office. True, he did inherit some of the mess, but his stimulus and TARP plans were supposed to fix all that. Unemployment was not supposed to pass 8%, remember? Now we’re sitting at 9%, almost stagnant, and no signs of us being below 8% before 2016. Given that is certainly change, but can you call it “hope”? Nearly 80% of small businesses today say they are not hiring. That does not bode well for improving the slumping job market.
The deficit is setting records on a monthly basis, both as a percentage of GDP and in total adjusted levels. This is not something inherited from previous administrations. It is due in large part to the massive entitlement spending and regulatory labyrinth that the Obama Regime has created in its three years of existence. Obamacare has already spread its tentacles into American industry, strangling small business and raising the cost of healthcare. That’s the exact opposite of what we were told it would actually due.
In further evidence of its colossal failure, key portions of Obamacare have already been deemed unfeasible, further reducing the “cost savings” on which the CBO had based its cost saving scores. Top all this off with Dodd-Frank, the legislation that is strangling the financial industry, the various efforts at fixing housing, the auto bailouts, and of course “cash for clunkers”, and you’ve got a spending spree rivaled only by a Berkley freshmen holding Daddy’s new credit card. Your great-grandchildren are already in debt, and most have not yet been conceived.
The rich have been getting much richer under Obama, and the poor are getting much poorer. Record numbers of Americans are out of work and on the government dole, either unemployment or food stamps. The wealth gap between old and young continues to grow, now wider than it’s ever been. So the rich are getting richer, and are also older, meaning children are the hardest hit by Obama’s failed policies.
The Misery Index, the measure of unemployment and inflation, is now at levels not seen in the Bush years, and is nearly double what it was just ten years ago. The index combines unemployment and inflation on the basis that those not working are hardest hit by the higher interest rates, hence more misery. It has been climbing steadily in the past six months, and has set a new record high each of the last three for the Obama Regime. With the projected high unemployment rate and the inevitable increased inflation you can expect the number to get worse the longer Obama’s current economic policies are in place. The current trajectory would have it at Jimmy Carter levels in roughly 18 months.
Obama’s response is to raise taxes on the “rich”, which just happens to be the corporations that provide jobs for the unemployed. Even Obama’s own GE advisors are shipping business out of the country to avoid some of the highest corporate tax rates in the world. The cost of increased business taxes would be passed on to consumers in the form of increased prices, otherwise known as inflation. This would reduce spending, reducing the associated tax revenue, and likely trigger more tax increases under Obama. What a brilliant strategy from the man who claims he is “pro business”.
In summary we have more regulation, bigger government, greater debt, a lower standard of living, more poor people, fewer jobs, and more misery than we did when Obama took office. The strategy being offered is more stimulus (already tried and failed), more taxes (even Obama has said that’s a bad idea), and more regulation to strangle small business. If you’ve wondered why companies are not hiring, you need look no further. Overall you have to give this President a “D-” for his first three years, but only because an “F” would hurt his self-esteem.
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