Obama Rips Clinton Era in Jobs Report Defense




by John Nolte 6 Jul 2012 111 post a comment
Off-teleprompter, the President is nothing if not a disaster, and this morning in Ohio, fresh off another heartbreaking jobs report for the American people, Obama attempted to wax eloquent to a small group about the beauty of the middle class and how he is its savior. According to Obama, it was his desire to save the middle class that drove him to get into politics and run for the Illinois State Senate.

Emphasis is mine:

The reason I ran for president, the reason I ran the first time for a State Senate seat on the Southside of Chicago, was because for too many people, that bargain, that dream, felt like it was slipping away. We had gone through a decade where people were working harder and harder, but we didn’t see an increase in income. And profits were going sky high for a lot of companies but jobs weren't growing fast enough. And the cost of everything from health care to college tuition to grocery to gas kept going up faster than people's incomes.

So a lot of folks felt like that idea that we could not only live a good middle class life but more importantly we could pass it on to our kids and they could succeed the way we might not have imagined. They could go to college and do some things we couldn’t imagine doing. That felt like it was slipping away from too many people. That's why I got into politics.

We'll get to how factually challenged all of that is in a bit, but Obama's bid for the Illinois State Senate occurred in 1996, which means that he's trashing the results of Bill Clinton's first term. Clinton ran for reelection in 1996 and won in a walk, largely due to an economy that was thriving. Whether you credit Clinton or the Republican Congress (I credit both) for the economic boom of the 90s, for Obama to trash 1996 as a time when the middle class felt the dream all slipping away is not only nonsense to those of us who lived through it; it is also factually untrue.

During 1996, the U.S. economy saw moderately high growth with low inflation and historically low unemployment. Gross domestic product is forecast to have grown 2.8 percent for 1996. The economy created approximately 2.5 million additional jobs in 1996, a 2.1 percent increase from 1995 levels. Inflation again remained low, around 3.0 percent, and the Federal Reserve was reluctant to change interest rates throughout the year on signs of a slowing economy.

In 1996, we were all feeling the effects of an actual recovery after the shallow recession that cost the first President Bush his job. Clinton's opponent, Bob Dole, lost mainly due to the fact that there were no issues for him to hit Clinton with on the only issue that matters, the economy.

As far as the facts: Obama is also near-delusional talking about gas prices, tuition, and the price of health care increasing in 1996. Under Obama, gas prices have exploded, tuition costs are burying students in mortgage-size debt after they graduate college, and the cost of healthcare has increased almost $2500 per family since 2008. I don’t know anyone who wouldn’t kiss What Life Was Like In 1996 on the lips right now.

Furthermore, for Obama to stand there after three and a half years in office and trash 1996 as income, the GDP, manufacturing, and job creation under his watch are all falling -- for him to stand there and pretend to be the Guardian of the Middle Class after jamming through ObamaCare against the wishes of the middle class who will most certainly bear the brunt of this monstrous burden -- is what one might call…

The Audacity of Knowing the Media Will Never Fact-Check You.

Somebody needs to get the President a teleprompter stat.






To Defend Today's Job Report Obama Trashes Clinton Era