The Obama Economic Record is Even Worse than You Realize

The Obama Economic Record is Even Worse than You Realize

Chad Stafko

Six years ago this month, America cast its lot toward a young, first-term U.S. Senator from Illinois to lead the greatest nation in the world. His mesmerizing words and bold promises drew folks in by the millions.

However, unless you're a bleeding heart liberal, you realize the social experiment of electing an unqualified, former professional antagonizer has been an economic disaster. 

The quantitative evidence, and it abundant, is overwhelming and ever-growing.

Remember the fanfare of January 2009. Members of the media were fawning all over themselves at what they were witnessing, the first black President of the United States.

Change was coming. All families, not just the rich, would rise in wealth, but especially those with the lowest of incomes. African-Americans would see their lot improve, as would other minority groups. Grand and exciting changes were coming with the 44th President of the United States. Exhilaration filled the air. 

Obama seemed the type of leader we needed to right the wrongs of the past and deliver all Americans into prosperity.

Now, six years later, the degree to which Barack Obama has failed, as seen in the data, is quite staggering.

Consider the wealth gap. According to a report from the Pew Research Center, in 2014 upper income households had almost seven times the wealth of middle class households. That is the largest gap between these respective groups in the three decades the Fed has collected such data. Yes, it's even higher than the "Evil 80s" under Reagan. 

Uh, that wasn't supposed to happen!

Recall President Obama's campaign exchange with Joe the Plumber when he stated, "And I think that when you spread the wealth around, it's good for everybody."

Obama also spoke of his desire to redistribute wealth in a 1998 speech when he said, "I actually believe in (wealth) redistribution."

Closing the wealth gap is a Utopian goal of liberals and Obama was no different. He campaigned on it.

Yet, lower and middle class Americans, groups with which Democrats so often claim allegiance, have fallen further down the economic ladder under President Obama.

Consider this staggering comparison: In 2007, the average household income in America was $55,627. 

In 2014, that figure had slipped to $53,880 -- Americans earned less on average than they did seven years prior. So, what has happened is that the average American family has been earning less than it did when the great Recession began. All the while, over that same period prices of practically everything else we buy rose.

Let's look deeper into segments of wealth within the nation.

According to government data, in 2007 the lowest quintile of earners in America made up 3.4% of total earnings. That means the lowest 20% of earners in America only collected 3.4% of the total earnings pie in 2007.

In 2013 (the latest available data), that figure had dropped to 3.2%. Bear with me on the math, because it is damning evidence of Obama's Utopian economic failure.

That reduction from 3.4% to 3.2% of total earnings means these folks have seen a 6.25% reduction in the slice of their total earnings pie over that period.

What about the highest earning quintile? Over that same period, their slice of the pie actually swelled from 49.7% in 2007 to 51.0% in 2013.

Those are official government numbers. That's the undeniable fact that liberals should know -- under your Messianic President, the rich literally got richer and the poor got poorer.

Even that bastion of objectivity, The New York Times, cited a National Employment Law Project study in an April article in which it was noted that a million jobs in middle-income industries were lost during the Great Recession. The article added that those million workers then often found themselves either unemployed or flipping burgers at a minimum wage job. 

Wow, is that the American Dream that was being ballyhooed by so many when they cast their lot for the Community Agitator from Chicago back in 2008?

I don't recall breathless anticipation of people having their homes foreclosed or moving from an assembly line at the factory to a food assembly line at the burger joint.

Yet, that's the reality.

Consider the economic scorecard for African-Americans under Obama?

It's Dismal.

Some Obama supporters will defend him by saying that the African-American unemployment rate has dropped from 12.7% when he took office to 11.1% as of November 2014, the latest reported month. At first glance that might appear impressive.

However, the reason that figure has dropped is because so many African-Americans have actually dropped out of the labor force.

In January 2009, there were 10,312,000 African-Americans not in the labor force. As of November 2014, the latest available data, that figure had swelled to 11,923,000. That represents more than a 15% increase in African-Americans who have exited the workforce.

Look at food stamps. The latest dataindicate that some 46 million or one in seven Americans are on food stamps.

Practically any way you slice the data, Obama's economic and labor grades are woeful.

Yet, without a hint of shame, six months ago President Obama boasted, "I think you'd have to say that we've managed the economy pretty well."

Really?

It looks like the economic illusionist that is Obama is finally losing his touch...that or folks are finally starting to question him

A CNBC poll in October found that a mere 24% of Americans were confident in Obama's economic policies and goals.

As for the other 76% of Americans--they have seen through the smoke and mirrors and realize that indeed the Obama reign over the economy has resulted in nothing other than disappearing jobs and earnings.

Chad Stafko is a writer living in the Midwest. He can be reached at stafko@msn.com