Obama’s “hope and change” results.
Unemployment Rate: This administration does not count the unemployed who are no longer looking for a job. So, without counting them, the unemployment rate is currently identical to February 2009 at 8.3%, after being well above that level for 36 months. The month before signing the Stimulus Obama promised it would never go above 8%. The CBO predicts unemployment to remain closer to 9% through 2012. Who knows what it would be if we actually counted everyone that is unemployed.
Long-term Unemployment: The number of workers who have been unable to find a job in 27 months or more is up 83% - now totaling 5.5 million people.
Civilian Labor Force: It has shrunk 126,000. According to IBD, in past recoveries the labor force has expanded by more than 3 million people over comparable time periods.
Labor Force Participation Rate: A measure of the number of age eligible Americans working or looking for a job – the LPR is down 3% to 63.7% - also highly unusual this far into a recovery, and a rate not seen since the early 1980s when fewer women were in the workforce. About four million people have given up on finding a job. A low LPR artificially makes the unemployment rate look better that it really is.
Household Income: Median annual household income is about 7% lower than in February 2009 according to the Sentier Research Household Income Index.
National Debt: Up $4.5 trillion – a staggering 41% - to $15.4 trillion.
Deficits: FY 2009’s deficit was $1.4 trillion. Obama’s new budget projects FY 2012 will be $1.33 trillion. FY 2010 added $1.293 trillion; FY 2011 another $1.299 trillion. He had promised to cut “the deficit he inherited” for 2009 in half by the end of his first term.
Gross Domestic Product: Real GDP has climbed just 6% between Q1 2009 (the bottom of the recession) and Q4 2011 making this the slowest recovery since the Great Depression.
My conclusion on "hope and change"; our only hope is for a change in NOVEMBER.
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