This information is so simplistic and out of context, it doesn’t even make for good propaganda. It is good enough to confirm the biases of the pseudo-intelligentsia over at Occupy Democrats though.

Unemployment

This unemployment is measured at the narrowest possible definition. According to the U-3 measure of unemployment, people who have been discouraged and have not looked for a job within 4 weeks of the survey aren’t counted as unemployed. It is also concerning that so many of the jobs that have been created are low paying and in the hospitality sector (eg. hamburger flippers…). Growth in employment in the manufacturing sector is marginal compared to other sectors. Under Obama, the number of people on food stamps (modern day soup kitchens) is up from 33 million to 45 million.

Budget Deficit

Some creative accounting went into this figure. If you look at new debt being added to the national debt every year, you will see that is has stayed roughly the same. New debt to GDP was 6,9% in 2008, and is 6,2% in 2014. It took about a 100 years to get the national debt up to $10tn. It has taken Obama 5 years to almost double it and take it to $18tn. The scary thing is that almost one third of this debt is held by the Federal Reserve (they owe money to themselves).

Uninsured rate

Seems that if you make a law (the Affordable Care Act) which makes it mandatory for every citizen to register for health insurance, the insured rate goes up. Who would have guessed? It seems the old socialist adage of “some ideas are so good they have to be mandatory” still rings true.

Troops in Iraq

Following the unprecedented blunder by Bush to invade Iraq in 2003, Obama on the face of it seems to have done the right thing in withdrawing from the region. But the withdrawal has unfortunately seen ISIS flourish due to the power vacuum in the country. Democrats should also not forget of the Nobel Peace Prize Winner’s humanitarian mission in Libya, where the US bombed and overthrew the Gaddafi regime, yet again leaving a power vacuum, and plunging the country into chaos for multiple years.

Renewable energy

The US provides an annual tax subsidy of $7.4bn for renewable energy, so it is not a surprise to see growth in that sector. Although this is a positive move on the face of it, it could be argued that anything that needs to be subsidized is not worth having.

Marriage equality

When your country is engaged in various wars, your central bank has to print billions of dollars every month to keep the economy afloat, and your government has run at a loss for the past decade, marriage equality doesn’t seem like much of a priority. Is it such a big deal? All that has changed is that the government now allows a greater number of people to obtain a document telling them they are legally married. Why you need a government certificate to validate your relationship with another individual (apart from certain legal implications) is unclear. The typical libertarian position is that government should play no part in the business of marriage anyway.

Dow Jones

Before we get to why the stock market is so high, we should ask: why does it matter? Do you measure the success of the president by how high the stock market is? The president doesn’t have a mandate to keep the DJIA above a certain level, but you choose to congratulate him for it anyway. As to why the stock market is so artificially high? Well that is simple. If you bail out financial institutions, print $4tn dollars over a period of 5 years and make interest rates 0.25%, of course you will inflate the stock market to artificial bubble-like levels. And this almost exclusively benefits the rich, and hurts the middle class and poor (by stealing their savings).

Consumer Confidence

Consumer confidence is an easy one to debunk. It is not based on any empirical facts, rather it is a measure how confident people feel about the economy. If they are continually bombarded by propaganda like this telling them how well the economy is doing, and they see the stock market doing well (for the reasons explained…) they will naturally feel more confident about the economy. This does not mean there is any improvement though.

This is nothing more than some face saving misinformation to try save some dignity after so many lies. Have no doubt, the Republicans would have done the same, but somehow it is just more irritating seeing this type of stuff come from self-righteous liberals.