President Obama and his permanent campaign staff at the White House are likely in a state of euphoria with the news that our nation’s unemployment rate has dropped four-tenths of a percentage point to 8.6 percent. The Obama Administration probably thinks things are improving with the latest numbers, but the American people know better.
Nate Beeler / Washington Examiner (click to view more cartoons by Beeler)
According to the latest Gallup report, underemployment currently stands at 18.1 percent, up from 17.8 percent last month. A year ago underemployment stood at 17.2 percent. Gallup states that “Many employers appear to have chosen to hire part-time rather than full-time employees for this holiday season…Gallup’s underemployment data suggest that today’s employers are increasingly relying on part-time employees who would prefer to work full time…The unemployment rate appears to have improved over the past year largely because Americans are taking part-time work when they can’t get full-time jobs.”
Sadly, out of the 35 months Obama has been on the job, the still-exorbitantly high 8.6 percent jobless rate is tied for the 3rd lowest of his presidency (Jan ‘09 – 7.8 percent; Feb ‘09 – 8.2 percent; March ‘09 – 8.6% percent). When you consider the incompetence of the Obama Administration on economic issues, this shouldn’t be surprising. This is the same administration that promised that unemployment wouldn’t go above 8 percent on its watch with the stimulus. America has been above 8 percent unemployment every month except for President Obama’s first month in office. That is not a jobs record; it is a record of ineptitude.
It’s sad because this President missed a golden opportunity to use his political capital when he took office to make critical, non-partisan structural changes to our tax rates, tax code, entitlements, and federal spending that would have been consistent with his campaign message. Instead, Mr. Obama chose the failed status quo of partisanship and special interest-rewarding politics. The hubris of President Obama has been reflected in his stale liberal policies.
A look at the month by month unemployment rates over the last few years indicate how poor a steward of the economy President Obama has been. The average unemployment rate for the term of the Obama Administration so far is over 9.3 percent. In 2009, unemployment averaged 9.275 percent, when President Obama focused on Obamacare. In 2010, unemployment averaged 9.633 percent, when President Obama focused on passing the Dodd-Frank regulations. So far in 2011, the unemployment rate has averaged roughly 9 percent, as President Obama has had a laser-like focus on nothing but keeping his own job instead of helping everyone else.
When you look at the totality of President Obama’s jobs record you see one of false hope. During the course of the next year President Obama will be in essence a part-time President, as he travels around the country giving campaign speeches and hosting high dollar fundraisers with top donors. America needs a new leader with a bold vision to improve the economy and get Americans back to work, not a demagogue who recycles failed liberal policies and then thinks 8.6 percent unemployment is a success. Let President Obama join the ranks on the employment line next year and we’ll see how much he celebrates.
