The Patriot Post® · Are We Better Off Than Six Years Ago?

“[I]t is indisputable that our economy is stronger today than it was when I took office,” Barack Obama said in a speech Thursday, echoing his comments in his “60 Minutes” interview last weekend. Of course, that’s an awfully low bar, isn’t it? And, as the American Enterprise Institute’s James Pethokoukis notes, we haven’t exactly been going gangbusters. “But consider,” says Pethokoukis, “(a) the economy has been unable to consistently grow at more than 2% throughout this expansion; (b) trend GDP remains below its prerecession path; © the share of adults with any kind of job remains well below pre-recession levels; (d) there are just 1.2 million more private jobs today than January 2008 despite 15.6 million more adults; (e) wage growth remains weak; (f) the megabanks are even bigger, (g) the pace of startups is lackluster; (h) median household income, as measured by the Census Bureau, was 8 percent lower last year than in 2007.” A few more stats: The poverty rate is up, even though government subsistence is at a record high, and homeownership is down almost 3%. Consumer confidence took a steep drop from 93.4% in August to 86% in September. Obama admitted the American people “don’t yet feel enough of the benefits.” No kidding. His solution? To raise the minimum wage (which will kill more jobs) and to spend more on infrastructure. Where have we heard that before? Finally, Obama noted, “Make no mistake: [My] policies are on the ballot. Every single one of them.” He got that right. More…