DiscussMormonism.com

August’s abysmally weak job growth proved yet again that President Obama’s economic policies are a miserable failure that will continue to undermine our country until he leaves office.

The government’s report that the economy added just a minuscule 96,000 jobs last month came at the end of the Democrats’ defensive national convention, where the president, Bill Clinton and other party luminaries made extravagant claims that things will get better if Mr. Obama is re-elected to a second term.

But analysts at the Federal Reserve Board, economists and business leaders say Mr. Obama’s declining economy is not going to get significantly better this year, next year or the year after that, until there are dramatic changes in the nation’s fiscal policies. Changes Obama Democrats refuse to make.

....................
But the Labor Department says job creation during Mr. Obama’s presidency has been several hundred thousand at best. In fact, “Obama is on track to have the worst jobs record of any president since World War II,” says Washington Post Fact Checker Glenn Kessler
....................

Mr. Obama claimed in his convention speech that he’s had to deal with an economic recession that is the worst since the Great Depression. But Ronald Reagan similarly faced a severe recession in which unemployment rose to 10.8 percent in November 1982. (Mr. Obama’s peaked at 10 percent.)

But Reagan “put in place a very different set of stimulus measures — emphasizing private-sector leadership — and when he faced the voters in 1984, the jobless rate had fallen to 7.3 percent,” economist Peter Morici points out.

Reagan’s across-the-board tax cuts — which Democrats ridiculed at the time — injected needed capital liquidity into every part of the nation’s economic bloodstream, and the economy took off like a rocket. Quarterly economic growth rates in 1984 were 8.5 percent, 7.9 percent, 6.9 percent and 5.8 percent. Compare that to Mr. Obama’s quarterly economic growth rates this year: 2.0 percent and 1.7 percent.

Mr. Obama told the country to be patient and the economy would improve under his infrastructure spending policies. But that hasn’t happened, and forecasters are predicting growth rates in the 2 percent range at best, far too weak to create the millions of jobs needed to bring unemployment down to 6 percent or less.

Unemployment fell last month, from 8.3 percent to 8.1 percent. (It’s been over 8 percent for 43 months.) But that’s because 581,000 workers stopped looking for jobs and thus were not counted among the unemployed.

To put last month’s 96,000 jobs into sharper perspective, the economy must add 377,000 a month, or 13.6 million over the next three years, to shrink unemployment to 6 percent. That will require economic growth rates in the range of 4 percent to 5 percent — levels Mr. Obama’s anti-growth, anti-capital-investment policies cannot produce now or ever.

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2012/sep/11/obama-on-track-to-have-worst-job-record-since-worl/?page=all#pagebreak

With the U.S. economy sputtering, President Barack Obama would like voters to believe he faces tougher challenges than any president since Franklin Roosevelt and needs two terms to turn things around.

Sadly, the president's problems are so daunting only because his policies aren't up to the task.

One need only look as far back as Ronald Reagan to find a fair but embarrassing comparison for Obama's special brand of statism.

In 1980, Americans were bearing double-digit interest rates and inflation, growing trade deficits on oil and with export juggernauts Japan and newly industrializing economies in Asia and stuck in a malaise of self-doubt quite similar to today.

Federal Reserve Chairman Paul Volcker, appointed in August 1979, pushed interest rates even higher to halt runaway inflation, the economy suffered two wrenching recessions and unemployment peaked at 10.8 percent just 22 months into the Reagan presidency.

The Reagan recovery package emphasized putting money and decision-making back into the hands of ordinary citizens and private businesses. Immediate tax cuts, followed by tax reform -- just three personal income tax rates, a top rate of 28 percent and fewer special breaks and loopholes.

He removed Carter-era policies that discouraged domestic oil production and aggressively sought to right-size regulation -- not slash and burn but retaining what was needed to keep business honest and foster competition and jettisoning the rest.

All strikingly similar to former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney's platform.

When Reagan faced voters in 1984, the economy was growing at 6.3 percent and unemployment was down to 7.3 percent -- it ultimately fell to 5 percent, as Old Dutch engineered a 92-month economic expansion.

Not satisfied to rest on his laurels, he pursued free trade, called to task Japan and others for undervalued currencies and negotiated the 1985 Plaza Accord, which increased the value of the yen by more than 50 percent and set the stage for export-led prosperity of the 1990s.

Similarly, Obama inherited an economy crippled by gaping trade deficits -- this time with China and again on oil -- and too much financial chicanery on Wall Street.

Sadly, Obama has avoided confronting China on currency manipulation and the deficit with the Middle Kingdom is up 50 percent since the recent recovery began.

Obama has limited offshore drilling in the Gulf of Mexico, the North Slope of Alaska and Atlantic and Pacific coasts -- no surprise the petroleum trade deficit is up nearly 70 percent since the recovery began.

...

(Link: http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2927475/posts )

Kevin Graham wrote:Just another well refuted rant by another Right Wing song bird.

During the first eight months of Ronald Reagan’s fourth year in office, the average Unemployment rate was at 7.62%.
During the full 12 months of Ronald Reagan's full fourth year in office, the average unemployment rate was at 7.52%.
During these first eight months of Barack Obama’s fourth year in office, the average Unemployment rate is at 8.21%.
We will not know what the full 12 months of Barack Obama’s average unemployment rate for his full fourth year in office, until next year sometime in January.