‘Anybody who says we are not absolutely better off today than we were just seven years ago, they’re not leveling with you. They’re not telling the truth,” Obama said last week. “By almost every economic measure, we are significantly better off.”

For a second opinion, just ask Obama’s own economic adviser Robert Wolf. He told CNN on Tuesday: “I don’t think anyone is saying the economy is great right now.”

Hillary Clinton seems to concur. “We have to make America whole,” she said. “We have to fill in what’s been hollowed out.”

By almost every economic measure, America is flat to falling.

Obama certainly can boast about the unemployment rate. From his Jan. 20, 2009, inauguration until last month that figure has fallen from 7.8 percent to 4.9 — down 37.2 percent. But:

The labor force participation rate over that period has slid from 65.7 percent to 62.9 (the lowest reading since March 1978) — down 4.3 percent.
 On Obama’s watch, the percentage of Americans below the poverty line has grown, according to the most recent Census data, from 14.3 percent to 14.8 percent in 2014 — up 3.5 percent.
 Real median household income across that interval sank from $54,925 to $53,657 — down 2.3 percent.
 Food Stamp participants soared in that time frame from 32,889,000 to 45,874,000 — up 39.5 percent.
 Meanwhile, from Obama’s arrival through the fourth quarter of 2015, the percentage of Americans who own homes sagged from 67.3 percent to 63.8 — down 5.2 percent.
Gallup CEO Jim Clifton laments this chilling trend: “For the first time in 35 years, American business deaths now outnumber business births.” As he observed in January, “Business startups outpaced business failures by about 100,000 per year until 2008. But in the past six years, that number suddenly reversed, and the net number of US startups versus closures is minus 70,000.”

Clifton worries gravely that “entrepreneurship is now in decline for the first time since the US government started measuring it . . . Small and medium-sized businesses are dying faster than they’re being born. So is free enterprise. And when free enterprise dies, America dies with it.”

Something else is missing these days: robust economic growth.

“Over the 6 ½ years since the recession ended in the second quarter of 2009, real GDP has grown by a total of 14.5 percent, or at an annual rate of 2.1 percent,” according to Jeffrey Schlagenhauf, a former senior adviser to the congressional Joint Economic Committee.

“Other post-1960 recoveries averaged total growth of 28.4 percent (annual rate of 3.9 percent) over the comparable 26 quarters. The Reagan recovery of the 1980s saw real GDP grow a total of 35 percent, or at an annual rate of 4.7 percent.”

To put this more vividly, imagine that you are in a car riding shotgun next to Ronald Reagan. You just left New York City and are heading south on Interstate 95. You zoom along in the fast lane, at 78 mph. You just passed a sedan in the next lane. A totally average motorist drives it and strictly obeys the 65 mph speed limit. And way back, in the rear-view mirror, a third auto slouches in the slow lane. Behind the wheel is Obama, plodding forward at 35 mph.

Statistically, the Reagan, average and Obama recoveries have advanced at speeds equivalent to those of these three vehicles.

To illustrate what this means over time, picture where these cars would be after 10 hours of nonstop travel: Reagan would be about 20 minutes north of Savannah, Ga. The average driver would find himself about 20 minutes past Florence, SC.

And Obama would be crawling through the northern suburbs of Richmond, Va.

Why are Americans so angry?

Picture yourself on I-95, creeping onward at a mere 35 mph, itching to get ahead.

And this time, you are trapped in Obama’s car, listening to him insist that everything is — as he said last week — “pretty darn great right now.”

Serowbot wrote on 03/13/16 at 07:52:16:


Looking at the anger on both sides of the spectrum, or lets call it wall, and lets say Trump is that wall, it becomes readily apparent we are heading toward a civil war at worse, or a great unrest that will lead us to the brink, unless leaders of less demagoguery, and ideology, pigheadedness.....

Can reach the people with a united message, AND actions ( of their own behavior ).

Bot, you display precisely the rigidness of thinking that leads to disruptive actions that in FACT, impinge and thwart peoples pursuits to happiness, on the left, as you claim those on the rigid right do onto yours....

And neither see the irony or the impending doom of such thought.

Trump has just marshaled a lot of the energy of folk that ALREADY feel as they do, not because of him, just as a Obama or a Michael Moore, or Al Sharpton access folks anger.......

Yet, you fail to see the hypocrisy, and irony, just as those who war with you do......

Not sure if its a sign of weakness, a mental illness, or just great indoctrination and propagandizing, but it appears man is loosing his ability to critical  thinking and reasoning....

It could very well be a side effect of capitalism where unfettered advertising has led people to a fantasy world understanding-mentality, and coupled with the propagandizing effect of TV and Hollywood, folks have become disconnected from reality....

I dunno, just a thought    

Serowbot wrote on 03/13/16 at 08:26:11:


Nope, never said that, sorry if I gave you that impression.
I am sucked up into this power struggle as well Bot, "they" have figgered out how to "sell us the goods"  

Acknowledging it is half the battle, not sure if its the easiest part, or hardest part, or if we ever throw off that yoke....

Let me put it in this context  

I have shared about my NEED to lose weight.
I found comfort in eating, etc, and I used rationale that allowed me to DO what I wanted to do....
Often times I said I know I need to use lose weight, and I could give a great list and reasons why....
I could even get people wholeheartedly to agree with me.

YET.....  

I have, since the new year, went from thinking, to doing.....
And I am down 28 pounds, and reaping the benefits of my actions already.
The "comfort" I felt in obliging my, uh, hunger (need)  
Has been supplanted by other "needs" that I have, that I would not have gained otherwise.....

Is it easy, no, not when I CRAVE that treat, or taters, fried chicken, gravy  

But I try and focus on things away from myself (belly) and instead on things like being in such a physical condition my wife can be proud to be seen with me, or my kids, and the fact I am taking steps to possibly extend my lifetime to be able to see my grand kids grow, not to mention to be able to reap the fruits of my labor, with spending on toys, traveling, etc.....
In my retirement.

Sure, I bet you would, as I would, love to tell those IDIOTS to turn the car around....
That those muddercrappity smackers are lost and going the wrong way, but I need to except the very truth that maybe, just maybe, its I who am wrong, not them, and perhaps it would be prudent to SHUTMYcrappity smackINGTRAP until I can be more assured of the route and of its destination.....

But heck, that ain't no fun, is it  

Sorry, long rant  

PS: Chew on that, no calories in all that fat  

Bot, what has Obama accomplished that has made America stronger asa nation?

What policies has he put forth that are different from the bubs?

We are at war or supporting rebels all over the world. And, the rebels we are supporting, odds are,we created.

Nobody has bothered to explain WHY , as we Saved the Libyans from Gaddafi ,we, armed with the most sophisticated weapons on the planet, COULDN'T miss the worlds biggest irrigation system...  The Libyan people NEEDED that .
Anyone care to address THAT?
How is it that Libya was on the list that General Wesley Clark made public not long after 9/11 , yet, the REASONS for military intervention provided by the news , coff, coff, agencies, came years later?

Until you figure out how to deal with those questions,,I really don't have to answer to you.

Funny how Anti War the Lefties are, until a lefty presidick is in office.

I'm more anti-war than Obama supporters. But, I know what is going on.