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Mr. President: Do you really think you are riding high with the rate of unemployment standing at a whopping 8.5 percent?
8.5 percent! Wow!!
Perhaps we should take a real good look at the real numbers.
The rate of unemployment was 7.8 percent when you took office, and look how much money you have spent since then trying to improve it. Remember that before you took office our deficit was about $400 billion. Now it's well over a trillion -- $1.5 trillion, more or less, and the national debt totals $15 trillion. Can you even begin to count to 15 trillion, much less deal with that number?
Moreover, as of December there were 6 million fewer jobs than there were in December 2007. You know, when the younger George Bush was president. Oh, and by the way, using the best-case scenario, Mr. Obama, you will end up 4 million short at the end of this year.
By the way, let's not forget that the Congress was controlled by your party from January 2007 to January 2011. And they held the purse strings!
There are also 170,000 fewer people looking for jobs now, and 42,000 of the new jobs end up being temporary jobs during the Christmas season only.
Also while you are touting the unemployment numbers remember that they are national numbers and elections, even though they are national, really take place at the state level; there, Mr. President, it doesn't look so good.
Let's look at the unemployment numbers in some key states:
Florida: 10 percent
Ohio: 8.5 percent
Pennsylvania: 7.9 percent
Michigan: 9.85 percent
Do those numbers worry you, Mr.President? They should. Let's look at some more, shall we?
In Illinois, your home state, the unemployment rate stands at 10 percent. In Nevada, it is 13 percent. And California, the Bluest of the Blue, it is at 11.3 percent. Do you really think you can't be beaten with numbers like that?
Even Ron Paul's chances of winning the White House look good against these numbers!
Republicans need to take a good look at these numbers and run against them, not against each other, and if they do they will win.
Remember, it really is the economy, stupid, and when that's faltering nothing else matters.
Oh! And let's not forget that unemployment in the black community is at a whopping 15.8 percent -- that is a full point higher than when you took office. Do you expect that black voters will ignore the damage you've done to the economy and to them?
Fat chance.
---
Michael Reagan is the son of President Ronald Reagan, a political consultant, and the author of "The New Reagan Revolution" (St. Martin's Press, 2011). He is the founder and chairman of The Reagan Group and president of The Reagan Legacy Foundation. Visit his website at www.reagan.com, or e-mail comments to Reagan@caglecartoons.com.
January 12, 2012 @ 7:59 am
The Obama’s took office and the jobs went ‘south’. The old saying is: When the going gets tough the tough get going. But with Obama : vacation, golf course, campaigning, and vacation [did I say that twice?] are the order of the day. The man cannot come to grips with the fact that America is ‘hurting’. [But then he really does not care]. He is worried about being reelected, YET that’s about it. Sort of like the thief that was caught, sentenced, and sent to prison: He wasn’t sorry that he robbed; just that he got caught.
The man should wake up and understand that he is [the] president and four years of campaigning for reelection is a world’s plenty. My gosh, man, give the American citizens a break !
January 12, 2012 @ 8:14 am
He doesn’t care is right! He’s doing exactly what he set out to do — relegate this country just as his father wanted to do but couldn’t. Lies seem to go a long way with this President, as these numbers mentioned above are often misquoted to give the illusion that his policies have worked. Truth, as essential as it is, plays no part in this administrations agenda — and worrying doesn’t seem to be part of Obama’s nature. An army of corrupted followers in some of the most influential institutions in this country is a big boost to a corrupted man who wants to remain in the White House.
January 12, 2012 @ 11:18 am
Hey the country’s unemployment rate just dropped 0.000001 of a percent of a point after Obama 3 years in office and 3 trillion dolars later, the recovery is on the way. Hope and change in action!
Just how is it that the misguided thoughts of a Socialist African illegal immigrant father who overstayed his welcome, could so influence the son he abandoned to screw up American Society. All Obama has to offer is Paridise lost, where Obama abandons his American children just like his father and just like they both abandoned reason and personal ingtegrity.
January 12, 2012 @ 12:08 pm
I wish that Michael Reagan had dared mention the inconvenient facts of, the huge number of Americans that are UNDEREMPLOYED. To his credit he did mention, those who have dropped out of the job search. But still, he might have mentioned that there is a clamor and cry for imported labor from Third World Countries… (Thank you bill Gates.) He might have mentioned that many of the new jobs created here, have gone to immigrants, illegal or not. He might have mentioned that we still take in hundreds of thousands of immigrants, as if we are not FULL yet and have serious issues here at home per their cost in our great big old Nanny State.
It is amazing, no, I stopped being amazed, that when the economy or jobs are mentioned, there is an instant coma that takes place per the IMMIGRATION crisis and narcolepsy about removing our manufacturing jobs, to tender loving places like, Communist China or hiring them to come here. Google as to Chinese companies are building bridges here, for indigestion.
January 12, 2012 @ 3:41 pm
The real unemployment figures are somewhere in the area of 20 to 22 million people out of work. Obummer and his economic (and I use that word loosely) todies, are convieniently omitting all the folks, that not only reciently quit looking for work, but, those folks that have been out of work for a couple of years.
There are plenty of them out there and they are not OWS bums. They have digllantly looked and looked for work, and many have gone for re-training for a different occupation and still there are no jobs for them.
That poor excuse for a president we have, isn’t interested in that reality. Only in advancing his Marxist, Communist, Alinsky agenda. The more dependant people are on the government’s largess, the more Democratic voters, plain and simple.
January 12, 2012 @ 10:49 am
Billwv, He needs to be reelected so himself and the socialists ,progessives he has surrounded himself with can bring about that “CHANGE” they keep talking about. The change is destroying America. Just listen to that DNC person DEbbie W-S, she is really good at twisting,fibbing,and lies. And she does it with a straight face and not even a blink ! We the people need to vote them out!
January 13, 2012 @ 2:47 am
Hope, Change, and Transforming America. These are his promises/threats. So far he has definitely given us change, and transformation of America, all to the extreme negative, not the positive that people thought he meant.
Hope is what we have, to see his racist, Marxist, butt thrown out of office, otherwise there is no hope.
January 12, 2012 @ 11:41 am
President Obama is on a mission for sure. He does have this attitude about our country that is extremely negative no matter how much he tries to cover it up with his speeches and other propaganda, his actions reveal this embittered and perverted attitude. And, so does his wife. Michelle Obama is his partner in this quest to “transform” America by taking it down a few notches and “pay” for the way this country has treated African Americans and other “less fortunate” in our country (American Indians, etc). From the beginning of his term, this President has staffed his administration with his cronies who all have some axe to grind with the mainstream Americans who created this country, and are hellbent to take it down through any means possible. He does not like our capitalist system because it gives power to our corporate structure that offsets the potential power of the government that could dominate our country (socialist concept) and he knows that to get in total control, he has to take down the private sector through more and more government oversight and control.
There is no other reason for the behavior of this administration then their goal to “transform” it through massive spending and hundreds of backdoor policy changes that give them as much control of everything important that affects the country at large.
Excessive borrowing and spending is the obvious activity that is putting the country into a potentially massive financial situation that will hamper everything going forward.
Hundreds of new policy changes and regulations created by his CZARs and other political appointees backed up by the DOJ under Eric Holder who refuses to resign in the face of all of the lawsuits and programs like “Fast and Furious” which exhibit a perverted change in that department that is negative to the security of our country.
This latest move to dramatically cut our national defense budget is absolutely a crazy move that the liberals in this country have been pushing to do for decades. This is just like President Carter who was another incompetent President who did more damage then good when in there for luckily, just one term. Cutting our defense budget was the most obvious move that Americans should be up in arms about because that is the one area that we need to actually spend more money to stay strong and keep our enemies at bay, and …a big AND…it is the best way to stimulate our economy that the government has total control. Our defense programs create millions of jobs of all kinds for Americans and was the single smartest move that Ronald Reagan did to turn around the economy when he came into office.
President Obama is the closest example to a modern day “Manchurian Candidate” that we have had in the history of our country. If you do not know what I mean by a “Manchurian Candidate”, you need to read the book or watch the movie.
He has to be removed from the Presidency.
January 12, 2012 @ 12:39 pm
President Reagan’s Plan to defeat the Soviet Union was to out spend them into bankruptcy by trying to compete with America for weapons projects and military might. Obama’s strategy is to bankrupt America by outspending the world in mighty Socialist giveaway programs so we have no military left to fight with. Reagan’s plan resulted in 25 years of prosperity, with America leading the world. Obama’s plan will set our militarty and our economy back 25 years with America just a second class power.
January 12, 2012 @ 12:35 pm
Obama isn’t the problem, he is a symptom of the problem. Defeating Obama is not just about removing an incompetent from office (although he certainly is that). It is not just about ousting a would-be Chavez-like dictator, who acts like he is king. This election is about defeating an ideology. It is about making America choose; individualism or collectivism.
Obama does not even hide his beliefs; he was out last Tuesday talking about how “we are all in it together”. Of course, collectivism requires that certain people make “sacrifices”, that everyone pays their “fair share”, and that a kind and benevolent government control the economy and people’s lives (for their own good of course). We have to remove the right of the consumer to choose and replace it with government mandates, government approved credit cards and healthcare plans, government enforced rules and regulations.
Nevermind that this has never worked, and that there are countless examples of its failure. Nevermind that this system created the worst dictatorships of the 20th century. Nevermind its obvious immorality and the only logical conclusion of such politics: the destruction of society.
Both sides will spin numbers and blame each other for who caused the job losses and who is preventing a recovery. It is an argument you can’t win, since there is never a control to compare it to.
Our side needs to focus on presenting Americans with a clear vision for the future; a society based on individual responsibility, opportunity to succeed if you are willing to work hard, freedom of choice – all the things America was founded on. Or Obama’s vision.
January 12, 2012 @ 12:43 pm
NY Graham,
This is what I have been saying and continue to repeat.
Thanks.
January 12, 2012 @ 12:39 pm
Does anyone remember those who were laid off and STILL haven’t found a job, but whose names were dropped once they went off unemployment?
I am one and I am not counted. Is it because once you drop off the rolls it is like you are dead…..or don’t eat, don’t have utility bills to pay? Or am I just unimportant because I don’t count anymore?
I know that won’t change even when we elect a (Repub) president, but maybe at the very least this country could begin reducing its’ debt! That will NEVER happen with Obama, Pelosi, etc!
January 12, 2012 @ 1:04 pm
Sam, you count…you are one of us even though the government statistics (which are always being manipulated) have dropped you to attempt to give Obama a brief talking point. There are many out there like you that are frustrated and doing their best to “hang on” until they find employment and it is important that you hang in there and keep looking for work.
I am convinced that there will never be a major uplift in job creation under this administration because they hate the private economy and are convinced that government is the center of the world and must establish the “rules of the road according to Obama” and will set the terms of our economic recovery which we can see doesn’t work.
You, and others out of work, need to help replace this administration starting with Obama, and once that is done, you will see a major uplift in our economy and job creation.
January 12, 2012 @ 12:51 pm
Speaking of “fair share”. how much should the average citizen give to fund the Federal government? What would be a fair number, bearing in mind that almost half of taxpayers do not contribute anything. $1000/person/year? That sounds fair. I would have to give $4000/year for my family of 4. That’s about half of what I pay in property tax, but I feel like I get much more from my local government than from the Feds.
Yes, $1000 seems about right for the Constitutional functions of the government: national defence, international relations, oversight of the states. Based on that, the Federal budget should be capped at, say, $500 billion a year (being generous). Of that, $300 billion should go to defense, the rest should go to the funding of the rest of the government. They will have to make do- after all, we all have to make “sacrifices”.
Of course, that will require serious cuts- no more foreign aid (except for direct national defense spending), no more money going to the states (unconstitutional anyway). Some departments can be shut e.g. DoE and EPA, and their functions returned to the states. Others can be made into independent self-reliant offices, such as the patent office and FDA (which could also be privatized, but that’s another post). Social security and Medicare will have to be entirely independent and self-sufficient, funded by payroll taxes at a rate that keeps them solvent. Eventually they can be transitioned to more private models.
With the excess revenue from taxes we can pay down the debt that is a ticking time-bomb set to destroy this country. We can institute a flat income tax (5%?), lower corporate tax rates, get the economy booming and get the unemployment numbers down.
What a wonderful dream.
January 12, 2012 @ 12:56 pm
The 8.5% unemployed doesn’t even count the 4 million people who just entered the work force nor the hundreds of thousands who are now off of unemployment benefits and have given up looking for a job. This economy is in the worst shape since the Great Depression and that took World War ll to get us out of it – not the New Deal. It will get worse when Obama-care goes into effect and worse still if Obama is re-elected.
January 12, 2012 @ 4:32 pm
Evidently Obama hasn’t gotten the memo yet that the unemployment numbers have spiked upward.
January 12, 2012 @ 5:43 pm
And let’s not forget:
Barack Obama: A record of futility and failure!
By The Numbers:
3.6: Percent Decrease In Home Prices Over The Last Year (MarketWatch, 5/31/11)
9.1%: Unemployment Rate. (Bureau of Labor Statistics, 6/16/11)
28: Record Number Straight Months With Unemployment Rate Above 8 Percent. (Bureau of Labor Statistics, Accessed 6/1/11)
39.7: Average Weeks That It Takes To Find A Job. (Bureau of Labor Statistics, 6/16/11)
$46,000: Your Share Of The National Debt. (U.S. Treasury Department Accessed 6/1/11; U.S. Census Bureau, Accessed 6/1/11)
2020: Year That Medicare’s Trust Fund Will Be Exhausted. (CBO, March 18, 2011)
By the Millions:
2.5 Million Jobs Lost Since Obama Took Office. (Bureau of Labor Statistics, Accessed 6/16/11)
6.5 Million: Number Of Properties Receiving Foreclosure Filings Since Obama Took Office. (RealtyTrac, Accessed 6/1/11)
13.9 Million: Unemployed Americans. (Bureau of Labor Statistics, 6/16/11)
44.6 Million: Number Of Americans Receiving Food Stamps. (The Wall Street Journal, 5/31/11)
$575 Billion: Amount Of Medicare Cuts In ObamaCare. (CMS Chief Actuary Richard S. Foster, Memo, 4/22/10)
By the Billions:
$569.2 Billion: Amount Of Taxes In ObamaCare. (Letter to Speaker Nancy Pelosi, 3/18/10)
$830 Billion: Price Tag Of Obama’s Failed Stimulus. (CBO, 5/25/11)
By the Trillions:
$3.7 Trillion: Amount Added To The National Debt Since Obama Took Office. (U.S. Treasury Department, Accessed 6/1/11)
$1.14 Trillion: American Debt Held By China. (U.S. Treasury Department, Accessed 6/1/11)
$1.65 Trillion: Projected Federal Deficit For FY2011 – Will Be The Largest In U.S. History. (OMB, 2/14/11)
$14.3 Trillion: Current National Debt. (U.S. Treasury Department, Accessed 06/1/11)
Republican candidates—here is your ticket to victory—use it.
January 12, 2012 @ 6:58 pm
WOW, YOU ARE SO RIGHT ON – Individualism Vs Collectivism. In WI the Recall Walker people ride around with blue fisted union signs on their cars and talk about the collective! I have been in the minority attending VERY peaceful tea party rallies where all they can do is shout and scream and give the finger and bang drums and blow horns in our faces and ears….THEY DON’T WANT ANOTHER VIEW TO BE HEARD! We must FIGHT to keep our FREEDOM and rights to individual accomplishments. I cringe and am SO ashamed to hear our very own President become more and more vocal about ‘sharing the wealth and people paying their fair share’. WHO DETERMINES WHAT A FAIR SHARE IS? This is SO WRONG! Everyone Please just UNITE BEHIND WHOEVER THE REPUBLICAN NOMINEE IS and vote this man out of office! VOTE to put more republicans in office so we can vote in a balanced budget amendment, term limits. Anybody but Obama in 2012! SAVE OUR COUNTRY!
January 13, 2012 @ 12:55 am
@wdjinc & TruthTeller:
None of the high school and college grads from ’08 to now are counted in the unemployment figures because they weren’t working full time. The number has to be at least double the “official” rate.
January 13, 2012 @ 2:50 am
….Just how is it that the misguided thoughts of a Socialist African illegal immigrant father….
Obama’s real father is likely Malcolm X. That’s the main reason he’s hiding his bc. His entire background and personal history is fake – made up to be spoon-fed to us. Google Joanne Newman. Google Stan the sham and her fake hair. Think about this: just how does a seemingly very ordinary mixed race baby / youngster / teen / young adult attract the attention of prominent Mid-Eastern people, the Saudi royals, Soros, etc. to the extent that they have a burning desire to mentor him, pay all his education expenses, etc? Only a child of some high-profile controversial person who hated Whitey and the U.S. like Malcolm X would garner such attention and protection from like-minded influential people.
January 13, 2012 @ 7:08 pm
Although I do not support Obama, I do have difficulty with individuals that cherry pick facts (unemployment rate) and broadcast them in a lackluster attempt to discredit others. Mr. Reagan, if I remember correctly your father was a first term president from 1981 to 1984. Looking at the numbers below, he and Obama are in a statistical dead heat with regard to unemployment figures. Remember you chose to only address unemployment numbers, you did not qualify or quantify your claim of complete failure. Using your formula, your father was an equal failure.
Unemployment rate:
1/1/81 = 7.5
1/1/09 = 7.8
12/1/82 = 10.8
12/1/10 = 9.4
12/1/83 = 8.3
12/1/11 = 8.5
January 14, 2012 @ 10:48 pm
ugottabe – You know everyone in his administration is a Keynesian as far as I can tell. There is a point where two sets of numbers one set increasing and the other decreasing will at one point be equal. The important part is whether they’re increasing or decreasing. Do you see these numbers getting better with Obama as president?
January 13, 2012 @ 7:57 pm
Nicely done. That was kind of my point above. People can take numbers and spin them however they like. It is impossible to beat Obama by playing that game. We must defeat him based on ideology, by presenting Americans with a clear choice of paths.