"It profits me but little that a vigilant authority always protects the tranquillity of my pleasures and constantly averts all dangers from my path, without my care or concern, if this same authority is the absolute master of my liberty and my life."

--Alexis de Tocqueville, Democracy in America

Wednesday, December 4, 2013

Just a Reminder... the Economy Under Obama Still Sucks

With all the news about Obamacare, it almost seems that the question of unemployment or underemployment in America are being ignored.   You can understand why this is from Democrats' perspective... they own the problem, since they've been in charge in Congress since January 2007, and in the White House since January 2009.   But why are Republicans so silent?   Obamacare is a colossal disaster, sure, but its disastrous primarily because it's been (and will continue to be) a huge drag on our economy, limiting businesses' abilities to expand, limiting individuals' disposable income, etc.  

Anyway, I thought we needed a reminder of just how dismal the Obama record on the economy has been.   Here's a graph straight from the Bureau of Labor Statistics showing the employment-to-population ratio:





















Hmmmmm... that seems pretty obvious to me... employment crashed in the 2008 recession and, under Obama's policies, has never recovered!   Instead, what this graph shows is that all of the job creation under Obama has been barely enough to keep up with population growth.    Right now, there's a civilian "noninstitutional" population of roughly 245 million Americans.   So that gap between 63% employed and 58% unemployed is about 5%, or roughly 11-12 million Americans who are missing from the employment rolls.   That's a lot of tax dollars rolling out in unemployment, welfare, food stamps, Medicaid, etc.; and that's a lot of taxes not rolling in because these folks aren't on a payroll.   And that's a lot of despair among these unemployed people, our neighbors and fellow citizens.

Remember this the next time someone in the Obama Administration touts how great it is that Obamacare is giving young women free birth control.

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