Tag: Obama Recovery Project

Obama Has Now Added More Than Twice as Many Jobs Than Bush Did by His Sixth Year in Office

Jon Ponder

Despite the Republicans’ determination to stall the economic recovery for purely partisan reasons, signs abound that the U.S. economy is on the mend. In his New York Times column, Nobel-prize winning economist Paul Krugman credits Pres. Obama’s steadfast opposition to the GOP’s so-called “austerity” policies — the same policies that have slowed recovery from the 2008 crash in Europe — as a major factor in boosting the turnaround:

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Misled Majority Still Believe Deficit Has Increased Under Obama

Buck Banks

73% to 21%

Majority by which the public says the federal budget deficit has gotten bigger during the Obama presidency, according to Al Hunt. “Here are the facts: In fiscal 2009, during the first year of Obama’s presidency, the deficit was $1.413 trillion. In the current fiscal year, the congressional budget office projects the deficit will be $469 billion, down from $483 billion in the budget year that ended Sept. 30. The deficit has been cut by two-thirds during Obama’s six years.”

Deficit Drops to Lowest Level Since Before the 2008 Financial Crash

Jon Ponder

chart-deficit-lowest-since-2008

Bloomberg:

The budget deficit in the U.S. shrank in the last fiscal year to the lowest level as a share of the economy since 2007 as faster growth and falling unemployment boosted tax receipts, the Treasury Department said.

The shortfall was $483.4 billion in the 12 months to Sept. 30, compared with $680.2 billion a year earlier, the Treasury said today in Washington. That’s about a third of the record $1.4 trillion deficit reached in 2009. Revenue jumped 8.9 percent and spending gained 1.4 percent, the figures showed.

Treasury Secretary Jacob J. Lew said the fiscal improvement is partly tied to stronger growth, as the nation’s unemployment rate dropped to 5.9 percent in September from 7.2 percent a year earlier. Still, the deficit is forecast by the Congressional Budget Office to start widening again as an aging population prompts more spending on Social Security and health care.

Initial Jobless Claims Fall to Lowest Level Since Clinton Left Office

Jon Ponder

chart-jobless-claims-2000-2014

“The number of people who applied for U.S. jobless benefits fell 23,000 to 264,000 in the week that ended Oct. 11, hitting the lowest level since April 2000, showing that employers are laying off few workers, according to government data released Thursday,” Marketwatch reports. April 2000 was three months after Pres. Clinton left office. The chart above from the Bureau of Labor Statistics shows that employment never recovered during the six years Republicans controlled the White House and both houses of Congress. The chart also shows that unemployment surged in advance of the financial collapse on Bush’s watch and only began to recover very slowly after the Stimulus kicked in. It’s impossible to say how much more quickly employment might have rebounded if Republicans in Congress and GOP governors hadn’t deliberately stalled the recovery by cutting funding to government services and employment.

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