In 2008 our economy went thourgh the worst recession since 1929.Obama took office in 2009 and did the following to help:
- Passed the stimulus without even one Republican vote: As soon as the stimulus passed job growth and unemployment claims started to recover. In all the stimulus ended up suppoorting about 3.5 miilion jobs.
- Bailed out the auto industry: the U.S. auto industry has added nearly 250,000 jobs -- the fastest pace of job growth in more than a decade.
- Passed middle-class tax cuts that provided tax relief for 160 million workers and helped jumpstart the economy.
- Expanded and Accelerated Payment on Government Contracts: The first two years of the Obama Administration saw the largest two-year increase in the percentage of federal contracting dollars going to small businesses in a decade.
And while businesses have created more than 9.7 million private sector jobs in the past 52 months Republcans have blocked the following economic purposals:
- A private-public jobs bill (Reagan idea) that would have been fully paid for and added another 1 million jobs.
- Comprehensive corporate tax reform: this would have stopped rewarding businesses that ship jobs overseas.
- A minimum wage increase: this would have benefited 16 miilion low wage Americans by putting more money in their pockets, and the economy that is 70% based on consumer spending.
-Passed the stimulus without even one Republican vote: As soon as the stimulus passed job growth and unemployment claims started to recover. In all the stimulus ended up supporting about 3.5 million jobs.
Uh-huh. So ramming a piece of legislation down Republicans throats was what James Madison spoke of and against in Federalist #10. The minority party has the right not to be trampled upon by the majority. The minority has equal rights as it applied to both government and the citizenry. Such behavior was deemed oppressive by Madison. On the other hand, Obama claimed businesses created 8 million jobs, while that was true, it was cherry picking. Only 3.2 million jobs were created in fact. In fact at the time he made that claim, there was 1.2 million jobs less than before the recession began in 2007.
As cited by the Washington Post:
State of the Union address
“The more than eight million new jobs our businesses have created over the past four years.”
The president is cherry-picking a number that puts the improvement in the economy in the best possible light. The low point in jobs was reached in February 2010, and there has indeed been a gain of about 8 million jobs since then, according to Bureau of Labor Statistics data. (Obama, saying “businesses,” appears to be referring to private sector growth of 8.2 million; adding government jobs reduces the total to 7.6 million.) But the data also show that since the start of his presidency, about 3.2 million jobs have been created — and the number of jobs in the economy still is about 1.2 million lower than when the recession began in December 2007.
Fact Checking the 2014 State of the Union address - The Washington Post
And while businesses have created more than 9.7 million private sector jobs in the past 52 months, Republicans have blocked the following economic proposals:
- A private-public jobs bill (Reagan idea) that would have been fully paid for and added another 1 million jobs.
- Comprehensive corporate tax reform: this would have stopped rewarding businesses that ship jobs overseas.
- A minimum wage increase: this would have benefited 16 million low wage Americans by putting more money in their pockets, and the economy that is 70% based on consumer spending.
And as of September 1, 2014, there were 9.6 million people still out of work. Which in the long run doesn't speak well for Obama's policies. The employment rate barely changed at all as demonstrated here:
In August, both the unemployment rate (6.1 percent) and the number of unemployed
persons (9.6 million) changed little. Over the year, the unemployment rate and the number of unemployed persons were down by 1.1 percentage points and 1.7 million, respectively.
Employment Situation Summary
In 2009-11, Republicans were powerless to propose any legislation, such legislation would have been rejected immediately by Democrats in both houses.
That private-public jobs bill needs to have a name, by the way, so does this 'comprehensive corporate tax reform.' And a minimum wage increase was only proposed for the public sector and government jobs. This economy is $17.5 trillion in debt, the only way consumer spending would help is if taxes were to be devoted to paying the debt down. So far, Obama has proposed multi-trillion dollar bills, and went over 1000 days before proposing another. Raising the minimum wage would cause many business to cut jobs and put more people out on the street. Also, BLS statistics also say that the 6.1% unemployment rate is not due solely to job creation, but those leaving the workforce.
In July and August of this year, 1,516,000 Americans alone dropped out of the workforce. Since they are no longer counted in future BLS statements, the unemployment rate will inevitably drop in future tabulations:
Employment Situation Summary Table A. Household data seasonally adjusted
Furthermore, unemployment for African Americans sat at 11.4 percent as of August, Teenagers at 19.6 percent. Also as of May 2014, 46,496,145 Americans were on SNAP or Food Stamps.
I might also add that the Bush administration oversaw 46 consecutive months of positive job creation from September 2003 to June and July of 2007 plus 50 of 52 months of job creation in that time period. Before the recession in December 2007, Federal tax revenue was at its highest level ($2.57 trillion) since 1934, when statistics of this nature were first recorded.
You my friend are a spin doctor.