Asserts the member of black conservative Project 21's national advisory council, about the economy: "August was the 43rd straight month in which the overall unemployment
rate remained above eight percent. While officially reported by the
Bureau of Labor Statistics as 8.1 percent, the U-6 unemployment rate —
totaling all potential workers (including those who stopped looking for
work) — was a much more sobering 14.7 percent. For blacks, August unemployment remained above 14 percent. It was
above ten percent for Hispanics. Women had an overall unemployment rate
in August of 7.3 percent. For teenagers, it was close to 25 percent. In August, the economy added only 96,000 jobs while 368,000 people chose to leave the workforce altogether."
He continues his commentary: "Adding to the depressing economic situation, the number of
Supplemental Nutritional Allowance Program (SNAP, or food stamps)
enrollees reached almost 47 million in June — costing over $6 billion
for that month alone. The average monthly benefit per enrollee is around
$133. Currently, one out of every seven Americans depends on food stamps.
It’s the highest-ever level of dependency for the program. In the last
four years, food stamp spending doubled — to a record $75.7 billion in
the fiscal year that ended on September 30, 2011. Is this Obama’s hope and change made real? Additionally, this past Labor Day saw the national average for the
price of a gallon of gas reach $3.80 — a record high for that holiday
weekend. The yearly deficit was over a trillion dollars for the fifth
straight year, and the national debt just topped a record-setting $16
trillion dollars. For those keeping score, debt has increased $5.4 trillion dollars since President Obama took office."
More: "This continued bad habit of the President to double down on his
failed economic schemes indicates that, when it comes to understanding
free market principles, he must be economically ignorant. It reinforces
his ineptitude — an ineptitude steeped in arrogance. Obama may indeed have 'inherited,' as he likes to say, an economic
crisis when he took office. But signs that the economy was in trouble
were very obvious in 2008. As such, fixing the economy should have been
his first priority when he assumed office. It wasn’t. Despite having the legislative branch stacked in his favor for the
first two years of this term, Obama could have passed a number of bills
to reduce regulation, reduce corporate taxation and made the current tax
rates permanent to encourage investment and psychological stability. He
didn’t. He essentially did the opposite.In simple terms, Obama mismanaged a serious problem — making it exponentially worse."
Derryck Green: "We Are Not Better Off Under Obama"
