PrintObama's first term: the change America was hoping for?
On Mark Levin's radio program on Tuesday evening he cited a number of unflattering statistics regarding Barack Obama's first term, ones the fawning legacy media mostly filter out or otherwise gloss over. (See table below.) He also adroitly dissected the inauguration speech and ridiculed favorable comparisons of Obama to Ronald Reagan that are apparently en vogue. Levin played excerpts of Ronald Reagan's first inauguration speech and the contrast versus Obama was, of course, stark.
Levin's show, if you missed it, is worth a listen. That show plus others of his over the past two months are archived and available for download free here. A good synopsis of Levin's current assessment of our predicament is here.
Though I don't know him personally, no public figure, in my opinion, better understands what is happening now in this country - the root causes and historical and philosophical context of the left's statist agenda - than Mark R. Levin. He is fearless, willing to call people out (no matter their party affiliation), and sometimes refreshingly politically incorrect. He is not afraid to publicly lend his support to truly conservative candidates for office, regardless of their name recognition or chances of victory. As to this country's founders, its founding documents, and first principles, Levin's knowledge is deep and his loyalty fierce. Levin puts his money and energy where his mouth is and isn't afraid to mix it up, politically and legally speaking. I will not be surprised if Levin plays a key role in the advancement of the next GOP standard bearer - to the chagrin of the Party establishment.
Along the lines of the data cited by Levin on his program on Tuesday, I prepared the table below. The statistics shown comport with the ones referenced by Levin, though I added some others of a similar nature.
|
BHO's first term: the change America was hoping for? |
||||
|
|
Beg. of 1st |
Beg. of 2nd |
% | |
|
Term |
Term |
Change |
change | |
|
Avg. retail price/gallon gas in U.S. (regular all formulations) |
$1.85 |
$3.32 |
$1.47 |
79.5% |
|
Consumer Price Index (all urban consumers) |
211.1 |
229.6 |
18.5 |
8.8% |
|
Unemployment rate, civilian labor force, seasonally adj. (current = Dec '12) |
7.8% |
7.8% |
0.0% |
0.0% |
|
Unemployment rate, alt. measure of underutilization (U-6), seas. adj. (current = Dec '12) |
14.2% |
14.4% |
0.2% |
1.4% |
|
Unemployment rate, blacks, seasonally adj. (current = Dec '12) |
12.7% |
14.0% |
1.3% |
10.2% |
|
Number of unemployed, seasonally adj. (current = Dec '12) |
12,079,000 |
12,206,000 |
127,000 |
1.1% |
|
Number of unemployed for 27 weeks & over, seasonally adj. (current = Dec '12) |
2,700,000 |
4,766,000 |
2,066,000 |
76.5% |
|
Civilian labor force participation rate, seasonally adj. (current = Dec '12) |
65.7% |
63.6% |
-2.1% |
-3.2% |
|
Number of federal employees, seasonally adj. (current = Dec '12 prelim.) |
2,790,000 |
2,794,000 |
4,000 |
0.1% |
|
Real median household income, in 2011 adj. dollars (2008 vs 2011) |
$52,546 |
$50,054 |
-$2,492 |
-4.7% |
|
Number of food stamp (SNAP) recipients (current = Oct '12) |
32,204,859 |
47,525,329 |
15,320,470 |
47.6% |
|
Number of unemployment benefit recipients (current = 1/5/13) |
7,770,779 |
5,659,482 |
-2,111,297 |
-27.2% |
|
Poverty rate, individuals (2008 vs 2011) |
13.2% |
15.0% |
1.8% |
13.6% |
|
People in poverty in U.S. (2008 vs 2011) |
39,829,000 |
46,247,000 |
6,418,000 |
16.1% |
|
Disabled workers in current-payment status, SSDI (Jan '09 vs. Dec '12) |
7,442,377 |
8,827,795 |
1,385,418 |
18.6% |
|
Number of recipients of Supplemental Security Income (2008 vs 2011) |
7,520,501 |
8,112,773 |
592,272 |
7.9% |
|
S&P/Case-Shiller Home Price Index: 20 city composite, seas. adj. (current = Oct '12) |
147.6 |
144.12 |
-3.48 |
-2.4% |
|
U.S. rank in Economic Freedom World Rankings |
6 |
10 |
-4 |
n/a |
|
U.S. money supply, M2, in billions, not seasonally adj. (current = Dec '12) |
$8,249.3 |
$10,475.6 |
$2,226.3 |
27.0% |
|
Price of gold, London (per troy oz.) |
$835.00 |
$1,688.00 |
$853.00 |
102.2% |
|
National debt, in billions |
$10,627 |
$16,433 |
$5,806 |
54.6% |
|
Federal expenditures, in billions, current $ (FY 2008 vs FY 2012) |
$3,168 |
$3,563 |
$395 |
12.5% |
|
Federal expenditures, in billions, current $ (4 yrs ended FY '08 vs 4 yrs ended FY '12) |
$11,945 |
$14,515 |
$2,570 |
21.5% |
|
Election, states carried by BHO incl. DC (2008 vs 2012) |
29 |
27 |
-2 |
-6.9% |
|
Election, popular vote for BHO (2008 vs 2012) |
69,456,897 |
65,899,660 |
-3,557,237 |
-5.1% |
|
Election, percentage popular vote for BHO (2008 vs 2012) |
52.92% |
51.06% |
-1.9% |
-3.5% |
Obamatrons will be quick to point to the stock market, as the DJIA is up 65% since the beginning of Obama's first term (but only 10% since he clinched the Democrat nomination in June 2008). Fair enough, and I'm glad for it. But food prices are up significantly too and for unsound reasons that I think aren't altogether different, namely, government interference in the form of credit expansion, borrowing, and the printing of money (see above).
