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Growth: It's been nearly two full years since the recession officially ended, and the economy is still struggling to get off the ground. It didn't have to be this way.
When the Commerce Department released its estimate for first-quarter growth â?? a meager 1.8% â?? President Obama's chief economic adviser, Austan Goolsbee, at least conceded that "faster growth is needed to replace the jobs lost in the downturn."
And granted, the economy needs to expand by at least 2.5% just to keep up with growth in the labor force. So at 1.8%, we're essentially losing ground, a fact that last week's 429,000 initial jobless claims underscores. But what Goolsbee didn't acknowledge is that the economy could be growing at a much faster rate, and would be if it weren't saddled with Obama's reckless policies.
How do we know this? Compare the two worst post-World War II recessions. Both the 1981-82 and the 2007-09 downturns were long (16 months and 18 months, respectively) and painful (unemployment peaked at 10.8% in 1981-82 and 10.1% in the last one).
What's dramatically different, however, is how each president responded.
Obama massively increased spending, vastly expanded the regulatory state, and pushed through a government takeover of health care. What's more, he constantly browbeats industry leaders, talks about the failings of the marketplace and endlessly advocates higher taxes on the most productive parts of the economy.
In contrast, Reagan pushed spending restraint, deregulated entire industries, massively cut taxes and waxed poetic about the wonders of a free economy.
The result? While the Reagan recovery saw turbocharged growth and a tumbling unemployment rate, Obama's has produced neither. Consider:
â?¢ GDP. In the seven quarters after the 1981-82 recession ended, the economy cranked out quarterly growth rates that averaged 7.1%. Under Obama, GDP growth has averaged a mere 2.8%. (See chart at right.)
â?¢ Unemployment. Under Reagan, the unemployment rate had fallen to 7.5% by this point in the recovery. Under Obama, it's still stuck at 8.8%.
â?¢ Long-term unemployment. There were far fewer long-term unemployed by this point in the Reagan recovery; just 18% of the unemployed had been without a job 27 weeks or more. Under Obama, that figure is an astonishing 45%.
â?¢ Consumer confidence. By this point in the Reagan recovery, the Conference Board's Consumer Confidence Index had hit 100. Today, the index stands at just 65.4.
â?¢ Deficits. Under Reagan, the federal deficit was trimmed to 4.8% of GDP by 1984. Under Obama, the deficit is expected to climb to 10.9% of GDP this year.
Obama and his defenders like to say he inherited the worst downturn since the Great Depression and that things would have been worse still had he not acted. But the recession was almost over by the time he took office â?? and officially over just six months after that.
So while Obama's policies had little to do with bringing an end to the Great Recession, they've had everything to do with producing what is by far the worst economic recovery in the past 70 years.
Politics: McDonald's announced that it received a million applications across the country for what amounted to 62,000 low-skill jobs. What does that say about the state of job creation in this country? For 62,000 Americans, the heavy weight of unemployment has been lifted by much-maligned ...
Disaster: If the nation's political and cultural elites believe they're presiding over a shrinking country, they should connect with the Americans now sorting through tornado rubble looking for their old, self-reliant selves. They do it so grimly, determinedly. They know, because they live ...
War On Terror: More and more Afghans and Iraqis are turning on their coalition partners. Last week's deadly attack on American soldiers by an Afghan military officer should be a wake-up call. During a meeting at the Kabul airport, a 48-year-old Afghan air corps pilot took out a weapon and ...
Regulation: While we were distracted by the president's birth certificate show-and-tell, his EPA releases its guidelines for expanding federal power under the Clean Water Act. America's economy and freedom are at stake. President Obama's long-form birth certificate wasn't the only thing ...
Are high gas prices a good thing? That is not as dumb a question as it sounds. Examine a few revealing remarks from President Obama and the Cabinet officials who are in charge of the nation's energy use and oil leases on federal lands. Then decide whether soaring gas prices are supposed to be good. ...
Posted By: fancy(2745) on 4/29/2011 | 8:36 AM ET
Democrats have been in control since 2007, Ms. Pelosi set the stage for this deliberate destruction to happen.
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Posted By: Phubaiguy(80) on 4/29/2011 | 6:11 AM ET
And the beat goes on..Reagan made everybody THINK they were getting a tax cut but he actually transferred expenses to the states which had to increase theirs. Figured mine and totaled them the year before also..almost exactly the same but since everybody felt better they spent more money and it worked. Heh, heh, heh. Knowing for sure you will have less money has the opposite effect.
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Posted By: Turtleback(1365) on 4/29/2011 | 6:08 AM ET
Breddy: Not even funny, young'un. Turtle
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Posted By: jake-i-am(75) on 4/29/2011 | 2:34 AM ET
Nice try Reunion. Reagan inherited a much worse economy than Obama. As a matter of fact, Obama is brewing up exactly what Reagan inherited from Carter, it' called Stagflation. Now throw away your class envey communist playbook and use your brain for a change. Less Government regulations, taxes and spendng = a more robust economy wth an expanding midde class.
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Posted By: Breddy(415) on 4/28/2011 | 10:56 PM ET
Runion: Obama is a complete failure no matter what, a leftist commie, a racist, a liar, lazy, irresponsible, and a fraud who doesn't know his *** from a hole in the ground. All true regardless of what he inherited.
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