Obamanomics taking a terrible toll

Obamanomics. Spend. Spend. Spend. And spend some more. Then remove any hint of personal accountability for those who acted irresponsibly. Make unemployment benefits permanent. Pay people to trade in good, working used cars for cars they can’t afford, then scrap the good, working used cars. Bailout failed companies with government funds, allowing them to continue operating under the policies that made them fail in the first place. Force banks and mortgage houses to renegotiate with customers who bought more home than they could afford. Push for a tax on carbon emissions that will push costs higher for business and industry, who will pass those costs on to consumers. Spend $1 trillion to put us on a path to government-run health care that will cost us more, treat us less, and make sure we die younger.

There’s more, but you get the picture.

So what’s it done for us?

The infamous $875 billion stimulus that President Obama promised would quickly revive the economy, save us from reaching the unthinkable 8% unemployment level did neither. Our economy continues to languish while prices for essential goods skyrocket and unemployment hovers closer to 10% than the 8% level we were promised would never be reached if the President’s spending spree were approved.

Last week, the day before the government released their December unemployment numbers, Gallup released results from its unemployment survey. According to the private polling firm, 9.6% of Americans in the labor market could not find work. The next day, the Bureau of Labor Statistics released its official report putting the number at 9.4%. I’d guess the real number to split the two, but they are both a far cry from the President’s promised 8% cap if let him spend like a drunken sailor back in February 2009.

Because the Gallup unemployment measure is not seasonally adjusted, it tends to more accurately reflect what is actually taking place in the U.S. job market — and may not agree with the government’s estimate that is seasonally adjusted. Further, Gallup’s data tend to be more up-to-date than the government’s because Gallup polls on the unemployment situation continuously. Combined, seasonal adjustments and timing differences likely explain much of the disparity between Gallup’s measures of underemployment and unemployment, compared with those reported by others.

Perhaps even more damning though, is the broader underemployment index which includes the unemployed counted above and those who are employed part-time but want full-time jobs. Gallup tagged this number at 19% for December, up from 17.2% at the end of November. That’s almost 1 in 5 American workers who want a full-time job and can’t find one. And it’s increasing at an alarming rate!

The President’s inability to stimulate the economy and jump start job creation is having detrimental effects on other parts of the economy as well.

One of the most often mentioned planks in Obama’s 2008 Presidential platform was to help holders of upside-down mortgages hold onto their homes. While the massive influx of government cash into programs such as Obama’s Making Home Affordable did forestall foreclosure for some, the programs turned out to be little more than a bandaid on a gaping wound, unable to stop the bleeding for good.

Home values continue to plummet and have now crashed worse than during the Great Depression. From 1928 to 1933, home prices fell by 25.9%. It was reported just this month that homes are now worth 26% less than in 2006. So Obama’s great spending spree didn’t buoy the value of most families’ single largest investment, nor did it stop the wave of foreclosures. Experts are now anticipating 1 million homes to be foreclosed on this year!

Obamanomics…the idea that excessive government spending can generate growth and produce wealth…is a farce.

The federal reserve has for a long time held short term interest rates near zero in an effort to ignite the engine of the US economy. Late last year, the Federal Reserve began to buy $600 billion in US treasuries, a sort of second stimulus plan, or throwing good money after bad in the opinion of many. As Obama’s stimulus and bailouts sprang to life in early 2009, Dick Morris reported the money supply in the US had increased by 271% in just 5 months, a situation he predicted would eventually result in hyperinflation. Morris’ claims drew criticism claiming his arguments were baseless, his facts wrong and based on partisan ideology. But this week we saw reports of skyrocketing food and energy prices.

Everyone who goes to the grocery store, pays an electric bill, or fills their tank with gas already knew this, but the government numbers on inflation intentionally exclude food and energy prices. Convenient for an administration that is intentionally saddling energy companies and food producers with crippling costs to confront new federal regulation. The Obama administration tactics are intended to force the costs of traditional food and energy up high enough to make prices of his preferred green energy and “healthy” foods products competitive. He is intentionally forcing up the prices of goods and services Americans buy in an attempt to get them to buy products produced by his political friends and supporters.

As oil prices close in on $100 per barrel, and a gallon of gas surges over 3 dollars, the President shrugs his shoulders and leaves Americans to just deal with it. Obama stands by his executive order to halt offshore drilling, decreasing the oil supply and helping drive prices up. It’s okay with our President if we pay more. He doesn’t want us burning oil or driving as much anyway.

Rising prices and Americans having to tighten our belts may not be the worst thing either. The United States was warned that its AAA credit rating is in danger by two major credit rating agencies. Moody’s warned, “that the U.S. will need to reverse the expansion of its debt if it hopes to keep its ‘AAA’ rating.” While Standard & Poor said, “the firm couldn’t rule out lowering the outlook for the U.S. rating in the future.” Loss of the AAA rating would reduce demand for US treasuries, which will result in higher financing costs to fund government operations.

What this all boils down to is that nothing Obama has done has really helped anything at all. Some of his programs have kicked the problems down the road a few months, which was likely the intent all the time. But the scope of his Socialist programs, pushed as if by a bulldozer through the Democrat-dominated Congress that was voted out in November of last year, have inflicted more damage on our economic system than he and his Socialist czars thought probable.

Rather than fix what was wrong, his overspending, crippling regulations, and interference with the free market have done more to restrain the economy than they have to fix it.

The national debt topped $14,000,000,000,000 (that’s FOURTEEN TRILLION DOLLARS) in recent days, a 40% increase in the two years Obama has been in office. You, I, and our children will bear the burden of his big-government ideals that have been forced on us these past two years.

We’ve had enough Hope & Change, it’s time to change it back…while it might still be possible.

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Tags: Obama, Economy, Dick Morris, Money Supply, Inflation, Spending, Stimulus, Regulations, National Debt, Free Market, Bailouts, Obamanomics, Fourteen Trillion Dollars, Standard & Poor, Moody’s, AAA Rating

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