Quote of the Day:

There is one thing that Republicans should be in complete agreement on with Hillary Clinton: President Obama doesn’t get enough credit for the economy.

–Keith Koffler, Lifezette

 

Keith Koffler points out that Democrats, with the help of an obliging press, have been promoting the notion that the economy is in good shape, when, in fact, President Obama's stewardship has resulted in an "epic failure."

The last jobs report might have benefited the Democrats but the reality on the ground is quite different:

Economic statistics are one thing. But buying milk is what matters. And on this score, Obama has been an unequivocal loser.

In 2014, the last year for which data are available, and after six full years of Obama's stewardship, median household income was $53,657. That's nearly $4,000 lower, in constant 2014 dollars, than it was in 2007, the last year before the recession hit. And it was nearly $1,650 below 2008, the year before Obama took office.

That is, Obama has failed to fix the problem. Even with wage growth over the past year, according to The Wall Street Journal, median household income is still likely not quite where it was in 2007.

No matter. Talk of recent wage growth is a projection. The last hard data we have shows a decline — and that means there is likely less money in your pocket than when the Obama presidency started, especially since fixed costs — like mortgage payments, your cable TV, your utilities, and the cost putting clothes on your kids and food in their mouths — probably haven't changed much, even as your income declined.

Koffler points out that the middle class has been in decline since Obama became president. A report from the Pew Research Center indicates that for the first time the number of people in the middle class is below the combined population of those in the upper and lower classes. Think about this: the middle class can no longer even fill out the middle.  

Koffler calls wage decline "the thick icing on a very sickeningly rich cake of economic catastrophe Trump can present to the American people." (Don't count on that–what with the candidate's apparently visceral need to attack the Khan parents and make self-defeating jokes, he had his hands–and mouth–full.)

But, should the Republican candidate want to load a teleprompter, the facts are devastating:

Under Obama, home ownership is down — close to a 50-year low at about 63 percent.

The poverty rate in 2014 was at 14.8 percent, according to the Bureau — exactly where it was in the mid-1960s when Lyndon Johnson began the "War on Poverty." That's right, poverty under Obama has been at levels not seen in 50 years. But you wouldn't know it from perusing the mainstream media.

And all of this ties back to economic growth under the current president. At close to a 1.5-percent average GDP growth, Obama has the very worst record on the economy of any post-war president. Jimmy Carter, George W. Bush — you name them, Obama is worse.

This is not simply, as the White House would have it, because a recession caused by a financial meltdown is some kind of unique circumstance that no mortal human being could fix in eight years. Obama's economic policies have had consequences, and you're living with them.

Specifics: ObamaCare is responsible for driving up health insurance costs, Obama's regulations add costs to all our lives, and federal spending is approaching 22 percent. The federal deficit, which had decreased under Obama is heading up again. Economic growth: nearly zero.

We may be living with these for four to eight more years.