Obama Thanks Himself—for a Slow, Partial Recovery
A good 2015 doesn’t make up for years of stagnation.
Americans got a raise last year, for the first time since the Great Recession. The Census Bureau’s annual Income and Poverty Data, released on Tuesday, showed a robust 5.2 percent increase in median household income. Adding to the good news, fewer families subsisted in poverty while fewer people went without health insurance.
Given the widespread reaction to the report—seemingly everybody invoking the meme “Thanks Obama” in a straight-up way, in a chorus that was joined by the President himself at a Hillary Clinton rally yesterday—you would think this cements the triumph of administration policies to bring about economic success. And there’s no question that aggregate positive outcomes are far better than aggregate negative ones. Obamacare absolutely made a difference for the uninsured population, and a strong job market created the conditions for income gains.
But digging into the data reveals a more complicated picture, especially when put in the context of what we’ve been through in the Obama era. First of all, we should be chastened by the fact that this is the first gain in median household income since 2007. That means that, after eight years in the wilderness, the post-recession recovery for the middle class only started in 2015.
Rest here…
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President Obama might have had better and quicker recovery if he had had a little more cooperation and selected a cabinet that was more consistent with his goals and not big banking. I fault him for not helping the housing recovery. What was put in place to modify loans, keep people in their homes, change bankruptcy practices could have been implemented in his first term. What happened was an ‘in name only’ sham.
I give him that this was a new ‘gig’ and he was inexperienced and dependent on people that did not always have the ‘man on the street’s’ interests on their radar.
However, having said that as my pet peeve, Obama and company pulled us back from the brink that two terms of Republicans, with unwarranted war and flaky intelligence, Bush, Cheney took us into the abyss. Having fallen into that seemingly bottomless pit in my real estate field, which marginally recovered for all but the poor, I take issue that Obama’s two terms did not put us on the top of the recovery mountain.
Give him credit for saving the wealthy, banks and for dealing with a no second term impossible tea party mentality Congress that balked at helping anyone that gave credit to the Democrats, Obama or the recovery. He did the best he could and frankly I resent blaming him because it wasn’t a slam dunk for the poor!
It could have been a lot more successful if these two damned parties worked together to improve our economy and stopped infighting!
What did it get the GOP???? a split party and TRUMP.!
It will serve them right if this nut wins! If he does that will be the beginning of a third party. Odd that the only way for the GOP to recover ALL their combined base for the next chance at the WH would be for Hillary to WIN? THINK about it?
WHAT WE’VE GOT HERE IS A FAILURE TO COMMUNICATE!!! [once said-LOL]