Obama's Economic Record

With the 2012 Presidential election closing in on us fast, I thought that it would be a good time to remind everyone not to be fooled by the Republican's claim that President Obama has failed them on the economy.  Could the economy be better?  No doubt about it.  Is it all President Obama's fault that it's not better?  Hell no. Are there signs of progress?  Absolutely.  Could things have been better had there been some compromise?  Again, absolutely.  Please do some critical thinking before believing all of the Republican's claims.  I'll even spell it out for you.  

First of all, please keep in mind that the economy was in a freefall of historic proportions when President Obama took office. We had already lost 3.5 million jobs, credit had all but dried up due to the near collapse of the financial markets, the housing market was in turmoil, the stock market was dropping like a rock, the auto industry was near collapse, GDP growth was at a 50 year low and spending was skyrocketing.  Things were bad.  We were on the precipice of a depression.  Yet, to listen to Republicans now, we are suppose to believe that they had nothing to do with any of these problems, that it all started when President Obama took office. WRONG!  8+ years of Republican rule played a MAJOR role in that downturn. 

Secondly, please also keep in mind that on the very day that President Obama was being inaugurated as President of the United States, key Republicans were meeting in Washington to plot his downfall.  The gameplan they came up with was to block and obstruct and sandbag every single piece of legislation proposed by the President and congressional democrats, even if that meant voting against something they had previously supported.  If that meant tanking the economy so be it, they'd just blame it on the President, they knew that many wouldn't do the critical thinking necessary to dispute that claim, so they just ran with it.  So basically, what they decided to do was to put their "party ahead of the country".   I don't know about you but that sounds damn near treasonous to me. 

Others claim they didn't even wait until the inauguration to hatch this plot.  Do you remember this comment from Senate Minority leader Mitch McConnell?   "Our top political priority over the next two years should be to deny President Obama a second term".  Nothing about getting the economy back on track, nothing about creating jobs, nothing about working with Democrats, just making sure that President Obama is a one term President.  Let's also not forget Rush Limbaugh rooting for failure either, and believe me, he hasn't been the only one.

Still not convinced the Republicans are at least partially culpable?   What do you make of the record number of filibusters that were used by Republican's, or what of the stealth use of 'Secret Holds' or the debt talks of 2010, that bit of Republican intransigence sure didn't help things.  All of these moves fall squarely on the Republicans, it's kind of hard to govern when your every move is obstructed.  Please dont' give me that garbage about the President getting everything that he wanted his first 2 years either, that's a blatant lie.  Republicans love to drape themselves in the American flag, label themselves as true Patriots and consider themselves to be 'the' party that embraces the constitution but I find it hard to believe that this was the intention of the 'Founding Fathers'. 

Lastly, let us also not forget about the Global Economic Crisis.  Do you think that could possibly be holding back some of the improvement we'd like to see?  I would think so.  Is that Obama's fault too?  Hardly.

My recommendation?  Give President Obama 4 more years, preferably with a democratic majority, he brought us back from an economic abyss while being blocked nearly every step of the way.  Just look at the results, as of right now we've seen 24 straight months of job growth, spending has slowed, the stock market is soaring, manufacturing is increasing, exports are up, home prices are increasing, foreclosures are down and the American auto industry is thriving, how is that not progress?   I know unemployment is still less than ideal, but please keep a couple of things in mind in regards to that, 1) unemployment is a lagging indicator and 2) we are coming off one of the worst recessions in U.S. history, you cannot expect results overnight.   I would urge everyone to please think twice before voting to go back to the policies that got us into this mess to start with.