(07-27-2016, 11:09 PM)MillsT_98 Wrote:(07-27-2016, 03:35 PM)Anthony Wrote:Quote:Obama has wildly exceeded my expectations. In addition to the economic triage, he's done some remarkable geopolitical triage. I compare and contrast him with Bush 43. While Bush 43 did a number of right things after 9/11, he quickly lost the trail. Overall, Bush 43 frustrated me greatly on the geopolitical front. He failed to see beyond the WoT. In this new century, we not only faced a ramping up of terrorism, we also faced a rapid deterioration of the Post WW2 order, and its modification, the so called post-Cold War order. The time to strike was the early 00s. We lost a precious decade due to this. Obama was able to step in and if not stop, at least arrest the deterioration. Finally we are cranking up our strategic defensive and offensive stance, in response. Kudos to Obama!
You are aware of the fact that in each of the last 11 months, the U.S. unemployment rate has been lower than it was in every single month of Ronald Reagan's presidency.
Yet the far-right Big Lie Machine has managed to convince most of the country that the economy under Obama has been at its worst since the 1930s.
The Great Recession/Crash of 2008 has made everything worse for working families and young students. The drop in the unemployment rate since then was bolstered by the creation of jobs, but many of these jobs left many workers underemployed and underpaid. In addition, many unemployed people stopped looking for work, leaving the workforce and causing a so-called drop in unemployment (mostly due to fewer workers in the workforce). In addition, the creation of wealth has mostly gone to the top 1%. The rich are getting richer and are leaving everyone else behind. This income inequality and underemployment/underpayment is why the economy has been at its worst since the 1930s.
And even with a recalcitrant Congress that won't support the millions of jobs, that cannot be outsourced, for dealing with our crumbling infrastructure, Obama's policies have brought back many many jobs. The best way of marking that is with this graph -
- that takes out the enormous trend of Baby Boomer retirements as well as more people choosing to go to school.
Sure, we're not back to the go-go days of private debt-driven pre-2008 meltdown, but the growth is much more solid.
This can not only continue but be accelerated under a Clinton White House, a Dem Senate and a chastised GOP House that could actually pass some infrastructure investment and other job creating programs.
On the other hand, that trend doesn't have a chance of continuing under a guy who hasn't given a shXt about this for his 70 years on this earth but just wants to rule us. There's no doubt the upward trend will be just as much at risk as it was in the 00-00s when we last gave the keys to the economy to the drunks that drove it into the ditch less than 10 years ago. Remember? If not, check the graph again.