Dear Editor:
Who are the 42.5 percent who still approve of Obama's job performance? Are they as out of touch with reality as he is? Obama recently said, "It is indisputable that our economy is stronger today than when I took office, by every economic measure we are better off now than when I took office".
When he took office the national debt was $10.9 trillion, now it is $17.9 trillion. All future generations will be paying higher taxes to pay the interest on this debt.
When he took office median family income was $56,696, now it is $54,045. Who considers a 5 percent drop in income to be an indication of a stronger economy?
When he took office there were 32 million people on food stamps, now there are 46.5 million. There have been over 46 million food stamp recipients for 35 months. Unemployment was 7.8 percent when he took office and now it is 5.9 percent, yet the number of food stamp recipients has increased by 45 percent.
When he took office the labor participation rate was 65.8 percent, now it is only 62.7 percent. The unemployment rate would be near 10 percent if the labor participation rate was the same. Is the only answer Obama has to high unemployment to encourage people to go on welfare and/or disability, rather than finding a job?
Let's measure Obama by the promises he made when trying to convince people to accept his bailout plan. In his January 2009 "The Job Impact of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Plan" he told us that his bailout plan would reduce unemployment to 6 percent by the 1st quarter of 2012. He also stated that with his bailout plan unemployment would never reach 8 percent. We bailed out the fat cats and this is what we got.
By discouraging people from finding jobs (drop in the labor force participation rate) he has finally managed to get the unemployment rate below 6 percent. The unemployment rate was over 8 percent for 43 months, it peaked at 10 percent.
In Obama's FY2010 budget, his first, he projected that from FY2009 to FY2014 the GDP would grow by 27.6 percent, instead it grew only a paltry 20.3 percent. Further he estimated that from FY2010-2014 deficits would total $3.78 billion, instead he racked up $5.01 billion of new debt.
Democrats had majorities in both the House and Senate during Obama's first two years, he had the opportunity to make changes.