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How is the economy as Obama leaves office?

I don't see that prolonging the death of blue-collar manufacturing jobs will benefit America much in the long run, but my guess is that much of the business community will breath a sigh of relief at having the prospects huge taxes, higher energy costs, and more government mandates piled upon them pushed back for at least 4 more years.
 
NIMBY said:
Speaking of TEN TRILLION---every single GOP senator just voted to add TEN TRILLION to the national debt except Rand Paul---I assume you're still against this sort of thing.

Think this GOP senate would have done that for Clinton ?
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Back that up. Not a single one voted for ACA.
 
independentusa said:
When Bush senior left office the country was in a recession. When Clinton left office the bubble was bursting and within months of his leaving we were in a recession. When Bush junior left office we were in the worst recession since the great depressiion. Now Obama is leaving office and the GOP says we are in terrible shape. I think they are very wrong. Obama was given a country in the worst economic shape since the great depression. It was not a simple recession like others we have seen since the fifties, but a really deep recession. Over the past eight yrars we have gone from that deep recession to slow but steady growth of the economy. We have had job growth for every month for the past 79 months and a huge drop in the unemployment rate. In the past six months we have seen the begining of wage growth and an increase in the growth of the economy. All of this while Obama got absolutely no help from the Congress that was controlled by the opposite party. It is my believe that Obama is leaving an good econmy on the brink of becoming a great economy. I also think that he has left an economy in better shape than any of the past few presidents. I wonder if the economy does leap forward if the GOP and Trump will take all of congrats for it doing so, and if it tanks will they blame it all on Obama.
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NPR ran an article on this earlier today: Here's How America Changed Under Obama, And How It Looks As Trump Takes Office : NPR

In most but not all respects, the economy is significantly better than it was 8 years ago.

It's not just about actual positions (e.g. unemployment below 5%), it's also about trends. The trend has been near-constant recovery since 2009.

While a President really cannot create jobs except via fiscal stimulus (yes, Donny, that includes you) a President can pretty much staunch the bleeding and/or get out of the way. As such, the auto bailout was huge; TARP was huge; QE was big; the stimulus helped. Without all these, the recovery would have taken even longer than it did.

There are definitely some people who have been left behind by the transition to a service economy. Those forces started over 40 years ago, but were accelerated by the recession, and did not recover.

Income inequality and LFPR are also a bit down. Congress hamstrung Obama in handling the first (death before tax hikes!) and the latter is heavily affected by demographics, like the Baby Boomers retiring, along with people stopping work to take care of family members and staying in school longer.

Republicans are exaggerating the down sides mostly for political reasons. They have opposed Obama from the start, and despite the fact that their most affluent and generous donors are doing far better today than 8 years ago, they absolutely cannot admit it. They can't even say "a President has little effect on the economy, so don't give Obama credit" because that undermines the case to vote Republican on economic issues. Can't have that, can we? ;)
 
WCH said:
Back that up. Not a single one voted for ACA.
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I mentioned zero about ACA, so poor trumpistan deflection there.

Why do you support this GOP senate raising the total accumulated debt limit by ten trillion to 29 trillion less than two weeks ago ? :lamo
 
Yet another thread where Republicans and Cons can NOT, and will NOT give Obama an ounce of credit for ANYTHING.

After 8 years, and counting, of nothing but hate and vicious attacks against Obama now that there's an (R) in the WH the same haters want peace and compromise and cooperation for Trump. lol

Amazing!
 
WCH said:
A higher percentage of working age people un or under employed and TEN TRILLION MORE IN DEBT!

Yea Obama was wonderful.
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sigh

Labor force participation decreased slightly -- 62.7% from 65.7%. Some of this was cyclical. Most of it is increases in retirement, college attendance, and people taking care of family members.

Of course, for you, the real fun starts now -- because due to those forces, LFPR is likely to continue its drop during the Trump years. In particular, the Boomers are starting to retire in earnest, and that's really going to ding LFPR.

As to the debt: It's astounding that we still have to point out that most of that increase in the debt was thanks to Bush 43. He cut taxes while waging two massive and expensive wars -- who does that?!? -- combined with creating Medicare Part D. The recession also put a dent in things due to lower revenues. As we all know, Republicans in Congress preferred to die on a hill rather than agree to any tax increases, which resulted in this...

Parfait-using-debt-gdp-2001-2019-5-12-11-FINAL.jpg


And of course, as no one has any excuse not to know, the deficit peaked for FY2009 and fell almost every year since:

fredgraph.png



Last but not least, Trump's policies are likely to send deficits soaring. So tell us now, do you believe you will be a deficit hawk three or four years from now? :mrgreen:
 
Visbek said:
While a President really cannot create jobs except via fiscal stimulus (yes, Donny, that includes you) a President can pretty much staunch the bleeding and/or get out of the way. As such, the auto bailout was huge; TARP was huge; QE was big; the stimulus helped. Without all these, the recovery would have taken even longer than it did.
;)
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Weren't those all put in place by Bush and Congress?
 
We may well be in a recession in a few months. These things are cyclical and we are due for one.
Republicans controlled the Congress for the last 6 years. You may think that they did nothing but obstruct yet they had the power and the economy improved. The same thing happened the last 6 years of Clinton's terms. We don't have an all powerful king. The recession occurred 11 months after Democrats took over Congress and unemployment was still high when they lost power in 2011 (9.3% unemployment).
Yes, Obama supporters can be thankful for the good fortune of timing. When you come in during a bad recession things will get better and your accomplishments look so much better. GWBush had employment gains from 137.7 million to a high of 146.6 million before the recession hit, or 8.9 million. And now it is 152.1 million. Only a gain of 5.5 million from the pre-recession high. Not very good. And a major reason why Trump won. And a major reason 56% of the population disagree with you, according to Gallup.
Americans Assess Progress Under Obama | Gallup
 
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Will never understand why Obama made the temporary Bush tax cuts permanent for 80% of the people. And it is a weak argument to say the Republicans made him.
 
Visbek said:
sigh

Labor force participation decreased slightly -- 62.7% from 65.7%. Some of this was cyclical. Most of it is increases in retirement, college attendance, and people taking care of family members.

Of course, for you, the real fun starts now -- because due to those forces, LFPR is likely to continue its drop during the Trump years. In particular, the Boomers are starting to retire in earnest, and that's really going to ding LFPR.

As to the debt: It's astounding that we still have to point out that most of that increase in the debt was thanks to Bush 43. He cut taxes while waging two massive and expensive wars -- who does that?!? -- combined with creating Medicare Part D. The recession also put a dent in things due to lower revenues. As we all know, Republicans in Congress preferred to die on a hill rather than agree to any tax increases, which resulted in this...
Click to expand...

LOl, its astounding that graphic is still being used.
 
NIMBY said:
I mentioned zero about ACA, so poor trumpistan deflection there.

Why do you support this GOP senate raising the total accumulated debt limit by ten trillion to 29 trillion less than two weeks ago ? :lamo
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I didn't. The ACA definitely increased our debt.
 
Visbek said:
As to the debt: It's astounding that we still have to point out that most of that increase in the debt was thanks to Bush 43. He cut taxes while waging two massive and expensive wars -- who does that?!? -- combined with creating Medicare Part D. The recession also put a dent in things due to lower revenues. As we all know, Republicans in Congress preferred to die on a hill rather than agree to any tax increases, which resulted in this...
And of course, as no one has any excuse not to know, the deficit peaked for FY2009 and fell almost every year since
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Obama still has us in Iraq and Afghanistan, as well as new wars in Syria, Nigeria, Libya, and Pakistan. Reported to be the only President to be engaged in wars throughout a 8 year term.
 
celticwar17 said:
Presidents most of the time have little to do with economies Booming or recession-ing. A lot of these things happen from a complexity of issues/corruption/government regulations and policies both long term and short term.
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Exactly.
Otherwise FDR and Lincoln would have been the worse presidents ever. Lincoln was president during the most lethal war in American History. FDR not only was president during WW2 but also the great depression.

celticwar17 said:
Obama came in with a recession... so of course the economy would have recovered... it had little to nothing to do with him. that is what economies do. But was it a good recovery? in comparison to ones in the past? And why?
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So true. Had the economy not recovered he would clearly been the worst president in our history. It would have been the first time the economy did not recover from a depression or recession. Sadly it has become one of the slowest and longest recoveries in history. Millions of Americans are still working for less money, less benefits, and have less disposable income than before the recession. This despite cheap fuel which really shows how bad things still are. The middle class has not recovered with more people moving into the poor category.

We can only pray Trump is the strong leader this country needs.
 
Eric7216 said:
Will never understand why Obama made the temporary Bush tax cuts permanent for 80% of the people. And it is a weak argument to say the Republicans made him.
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McConnell was filibustering everything in the Senate once Sen. Brown won Kennedy's seat.

Once Obama gave in, GOPosters tried to call them Obama's tax cuts .
 
Eric7216 said:
Obama still has us in Iraq and Afghanistan, as well as new wars in Syria, Nigeria, Libya, and Pakistan. Reported to be the only President to be engaged in wars throughout a 8 year term.
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There are around 4000 US troops in Iraq. Afghanistan is around 8500. For a little perspective:

afghanistan.jpg

There is no war in Pakistan.

There are almost no US troops in Libya, Nigeria or Syria.

Your implication, that the level of involvement is somehow comparable -- or, similarly, that Obama could have completely withdrawn from both nations on Day 1 of his Presidency -- is slightly insane.
 
PIPEWRENCH said:
Exactly.
Otherwise FDR and Lincoln would have been the worse presidents ever. Lincoln was president during the most lethal war in American History. FDR not only was president during WW2 but also the great depression.



So true. Had the economy not recovered he would clearly been the worst president in our history. It would have been the first time the economy did not recover from a depression or recession. Sadly it has become one of the slowest and longest recoveries in history. Millions of Americans are still working for less money, less benefits, and have less disposable income than before the recession. This despite cheap fuel which really shows how bad things still are. The middle class has not recovered with more people moving into the poor category.

We can only pray Trump is the strong leader this country needs.
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Did you really just blame the Great Depression on FDR ?
 
independentusa said:
When Bush senior left office the country was in a recession. When Clinton left office the bubble was bursting and within months of his leaving we were in a recession. When Bush junior left office we were in the worst recession since the great depressiion. Now Obama is leaving office and the GOP says we are in terrible shape. I think they are very wrong. Obama was given a country in the worst economic shape since the great depression. It was not a simple recession like others we have seen since the fifties, but a really deep recession. Over the past eight yrars we have gone from that deep recession to slow but steady growth of the economy. We have had job growth for every month for the past 79 months and a huge drop in the unemployment rate. In the past six months we have seen the begining of wage growth and an increase in the growth of the economy. All of this while Obama got absolutely no help from the Congress that was controlled by the opposite party. It is my believe that Obama is leaving an good econmy on the brink of becoming a great economy. I also think that he has left an economy in better shape than any of the past few presidents. I wonder if the economy does leap forward if the GOP and Trump will take all of congrats for it doing so, and if it tanks will they blame it all on Obama.
Click to expand...

Personally? I think it is silly to give credit for the economy to the president. Any president. We are talking about huge markers that operate without any concern for who is in charge. There is a cycle of up and down too. Doesn't matter my businesses and people adapt to the climate. Not the presidency.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
Visbek said:
There are around 4000 US troops in Iraq. Afghanistan is around 8500. For a little perspective:

View attachment 67212674

There is no war in Pakistan.

There are almost no US troops in Libya, Nigeria or Syria.

Your implication, that the level of involvement is somehow comparable -- or, similarly, that Obama could have completely withdrawn from both nations on Day 1 of his Presidency -- is slightly insane.
Click to expand...


GOP Van Winkle had amnesia for 8 years during Bush and suddenly woke up during Obama.

They're back to approving a ten trillion line of credit for trump and will most assuredly blame it on Obama .
 
trblmkr said:
As someone posted yesterday. Do you think Trump would prefer to take over the Obama economy or the Bush economy?
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I don't think it would make a difference. But you didn't really answer the question. Why was that?
 
calamity said:
It depends on who you are, IMO. Financiers, executives, administrators, teachers, importers, politicians, government workers, etc. are all doing well. People who work with their hands, especially those with no special talents or with only minimal skills, are doing poorly. Will Trump help them?


If he can, I'll be pretty impressed.
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I'm with you. I think the thing that has people on your list truly frightened is that President Trump won't hesitate to call them out when they try to maintain their screwing of everyday Americans.
 
Grand Mal said:
Seriously?
You should Google search 'Hillary Clinton' and read up on how Cheeto Mussolini could possibly get elected.
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You should Google search failing middle class and read up on why Hillary is unemployed.
 
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