barack-obama-tries-taking-credit-for-robust-economy-president-donald-trump-maga-red-wave-2018-midterm-elections
Former President Barack Obama went to the campus of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, brazenly claiming that the astoundingly good economic news Americans are presently experiencing was a result of his policies — and that President Donald Trump and the Republicans are just the lucky beneficiaries of his supposedly wise economic stewardship.
When Donald Trump was running for office back in 2016, he promised Americans that jobs would come back from overseas, that the economy would be restored, and that GDP would go up over 4%. Then-president Obama, campaigning for Hillary Clinton, loved to mock and ridicule Trump's campaign promises, saying that it would take a 'magic wand' for all those things to happen. In other words, those things were not happening under Obama, Democrats could not see them happening in the future, and indeed they painted a bleak financial outlook for the country going forward after 2016. Oh, almost forgot, Obama also said that Donald Trump would 'never become president'.
Flash forward to January 20, 2017, where we watched Donald Trump being sworn in as the 45th president of the United States in what George Stephanopoulos called the 'greatest upset in American political history'. Then over the next 18 months we watched as the Stock Market broke the all-time high record 6 times. We also watched major manufacturers return from overseas, we saw millions of jobs being added, we saw record low unemployment for blacks, hispanics and asians, we saw the GDP hit 4.1% and still climbing, and just for fun we saw the American Embassy moved from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem and recognized it formally and officially as the capital of Israel. Out of breath yet? You should be! But I haven't even given you the full list of President Trump's accomplishments.
So just how many of these things, which he was positive could never happen, can Barack Obama take now credit for? Just one. Barack Obama can proudly, rightfully and accurately take full credit for being 100% wrong in 100% of the predictions he made regarding Donald Trump. And what about that 'magic wand' Obama derisively mentioned? You will find that at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue in President Trump's top right-hand drawer in the Oval Office.
FROM THE NEW AMERICAN: “When you hear how great the economy’s doing right now, let’s just remember when this recovery started. I mean, I’m glad it’s continued, but … suddenly Republicans are saying it’s a miracle,” Obama told the cheering crowd on the Illinois campus. Perhaps Obama was hoping that students at the University of Illinois don’t read the latest job statistics while playing on their cell phones, but for whatever reason, Obama’s case is really quite weak.
Take the gross domestic product (GDP), often used as the best single indicator of economic performance. After the “Great Recession” ended in 2010, the economic recovery was the weakest Americans have experienced after a recession since the end of World War II — the U.S. economy averaged onn anemic annual rate of 2.2 percent through the remainder of Obama’s term. In fact, the rate of GDP growth was actually decelerating in the last year that he occupied the White House. In quarter two of 2016, the growth rate was a weak 2.3 percent, followed by an even weaker 1.9 percent in quarter three, and finally, a dismal 1.8 percent in the final quarter of that year.
In stark contrast, GDP growth under Trump has averaged 2.9 percent, and is presently accelerating, reaching an astounding 4.2 percent in the last quarter. Even more pertinent, it is expected to grow even more quickly when this quarter’s numbers are announced. How can Obama take credit for this?
Well, it helps when you have an adoring press, who simultaneously hate the present occupant of the White House, and are willing to openly conspire with Obama to create an almost Orwellian version of events.
Fortunately, at a briefing on Monday, White House Council of Economic Advisers Chairman Kevin Hassett set the record straight. He told the hostile press that optimism among small business owners was on the decline right before the November 2016 presidential election. One must remember that the media, pollsters, political “experts, et al, were all confidently predicting that Hillary Clinton — not Donald Trump — was going to be the next president, and presumably continue “the Obama economy.”
Obama and his media supporters can try to rewrite history, but it is not like either was expecting this robust economic growth we are presently experiencing. Obama’s buddies at the New York Times painted a grim picture in late 2016 for the next president — no doubt expecting it to be Hillary Clinton, and they needed to begin making excuses for her — when they said that “the underlying reality of low growth will haunt whoever wins the White House.”
It hasn’t haunted Trump, though. The stagnant stock market of 2016 has exploded since then, growing by 45 percent!
In Obama’s final year in office, the unemployment rate seemed stuck. When his last year began, the rate was measured at 4.9 percent. One year later, as Trump took office, it was 4.8 percent. Now? The rate is 3.9 percent, and unemployment compensation claims are at a 50-year low.
Despite all this evidence, Obama stood on the stage at Urbana-Champaign and actually argued that he, not Trump, should get the credit for the booming economy. And his supporters in the media tend to back him up. For example, Jordan Weissmann of Slate has written, “The economic expansion we’re enjoying today was set in motion under Obama.”
Really? Well, in the South there's an old saying for that sort of claim. “That old dog won’t hunt.” READ MORE
No comments:
Post a Comment