President
Barack Obama, when asked to name an accomplishment for which he is most
proud, said, "I'm proud of saving the American economy." Breathtaking.
Let's examine the facts, using only government, left wing -- or, at least, non-conservative -- statistics, sources or analyses.
In
2012, the third year of the Obama recovery, the Associated Press wrote:
"Since World War II, 10 U.S. recessions have been followed by a
recovery that lasted at least three years. An Associated Press analysis
shows that by just about any measure, the one that began in June 2009 is
the weakest. ... Economic growth has never been weaker in a postwar
recovery. Consumer spending has never been so slack. Only once has job
growth been slower. More than in any other post-World War II recovery,
people who have jobs are hurting: Their paychecks have fallen behind
inflation."
PBS'
Tavis Smiley, who possesses industrial-style contempt for the economic
policies of former President Ronald Reagan, said in January, 2016: "On
every leading economic issue, in the leading economic issues black
Americans have lost ground in every one of those leading categories. So
in the last ten years it hasn't been good for black folk."
Rep.
Emanuel Cleaver, D-Mo., then the head of the Congressional Black
Caucus, said in 2011, when the official black unemployment stood at 14.1
percent: "As the chair of the Black Caucus, I've got to tell you, we
are always hesitant to criticize the President. With 14 percent (black)
unemployment, if we had a white president we'd be marching around the
White House."
According
to the Federal Reserve, while white households' median wealth slightly
increased from 2010 to 2013, Hispanic households' net worth dropped 14
percent, while black net worth fell from $16,600 to $11,000 -- a
three-year drop of 34 percent.
The
national "official" rate of unemployment -- as released by the U.S.
Department of Labor and touted by the media -- stands at 4.9 percent,
the lowest since 2008. As to this official rate, when, by 2015, it had
dropped to 5.6 percent, Gallup CEO Jim Clifton wrote: "None of them will
tell you this: If you, a family member or anyone is unemployed and has
subsequently given up on finding a job -- if you are so hopelessly out
of work that you've stopped looking over the past four weeks -- the
Department of Labor doesn't count you as unemployed. That's right. While
you are as unemployed as one can possibly be, and tragically may never
find work again, you are not counted in the figure we see relentlessly
in the news -- currently 5.6 percent. Right now, as many as 30 million
Americans are either out of work or severely underemployed. Trust me,
the vast majority of them aren't throwing parties to toast 'falling'
unemployment. ...
"There's
no other way to say this. The official unemployment rate, which cruelly
overlooks the suffering of the long-term and often permanently
unemployed as well as the depressingly underemployed, amounts to a Big
Lie."
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