PrintObama: US better off but people aren't 'feeling it'
The president is delusional. Or misinformed. He also has a short memory. How else do you explain his statement that the US is better off since he took office, but citizens just aren't feeling it because we haven't spent hundreds of billions more in stimulating the economy.
President Obama firmly believes the United States is better off now than when he took office, even though the American people cannot “feel” it.
During an interview with 60 Minutes’ Steve Kroft, Obama said, “the country is definitely better off than when I came into office.”
“When I came into office, our economy was in crisis,” Obama said.
The president then cited lower unemployment, private sector job growth, and deficit cuts as evidence of his administration’s success. “I can put my record against any leader around the world in terms of digging ourselves out of a terrible, almost unprecedented financial crisis,” Obama said.
When asked if the president thought the American people could feel that economic success, Obama said, “They don’t feel it.”
“The reason they don’t feel it is because incomes and wages are not going up,” he said. Obama suggested raising the minimum wage, rebuilding infrastructure, and investing in American business to continue strengthening the economy.
Yes, things were very bad when he took office in January, 2009. But the rest of us remember, even if Obama doesn't, that his policies made things worse. Unemployment shot up above 10%, while the deficit cracked $1.7 trillion, after the $900 billion stim bill and the $3 trillion pumped into the economy by the Fed.
The president will say that his policies helped avoid a depression. That is certainly debatable. As for economic growth since then, try as he might, the president couldn't keep the US economy from struggling to recover from his mistakes. Record numbers of workers have given up or left the work force. The lowest labor participation rate on record. Wages barely able to keep pace with the "official" rate of inflation, while the Middle Class has to deal with prices rising far faster than their incomes.
This is Barack Obama's legacy and we may be a decade or more recovering from it.
