As the POR (Pelosi-Obama-Reid) economy nears the end of its sixth year, one thing we can say for certain is that the “fundamental transformation” President Barack Obama, Senator Harry Reid, Congresswoman Nancy Pelosi and their party have long wished to impose on these United States has made measurable progress. Democratic Party housing policies caused the recession. Obama’s conduct during the 2008 campaign and the presidential transition period lengthened it. His administration’s failed 2009 stimulus plan, followed by over five years of cronyism, demagoguery, and regulatory zealotry — now briskly advancing into bald intimidation — have slowed the alleged recovery to a crawl and exacerbated the very income inequality the left routinely denounces. If there was a record for most economic reports issued which are worse than they initially appear, this bunch would hold it by a wide margin. An obvious example of a bad number made worse after just a little investigation is in the April 30 report on first-quarter economic growth. The government’s Bureau of Economic Analysis told us that the nation’s gross domestic product grew by a virtually imperceptible 0.025 percent (0.1 percent annualized). Even assuming no population growth, an equivalent result in the employment arena would see a company grant a 10 cents per week raise during each of the next four quarters to a worker currently earning $400. But of course, the U.S. population did grow, and real per capita GDP fell. Fixed investment, the factor which above all others drives genuine long-term growth and prosperity, contracted. Obamacare defenders celebrated one component of the result, claiming that the first quarter of the statist health regime’s implementation was the only thing that kept the economy from moving into contraction. Applying just a little common sense reveals that Obamacare really sent the economy into decline.
Posted on: Thu, 08 May 2014 18:51:00 +0000
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