What started with so much hope is about to end in immeasurable disappointment. The most positive thing that can be said about President Obama’s time in office is it’s almost over

Obama’s record is not just disappointing, it’s disastrous!

CHICAGO—Shortly after being sworn into office, in January 2009, President Barack Obama and Democrats in Congress spent trillions of dollars in government bailouts, stimulus packages and various social welfare programs—all passed with the promise they would fix one of the country’s most significant economic crashes. After nearly eight years in office, Obama has not only failed to deliver on many of his campaign promises, he’s leaving America in more dangerous circumstances than when he first occupied the White House.

According to the nonpartisan Congressional Research Service, the United States hasn’t experienced a single year under the Obama administration with a gross domestic product growth rate at 3 percent or higher—the first time this has occurred for a president in modern history. Compared to the previous jobs peak in January 2008, the U.S. population has grown by more than 20 million, but the number of jobs has increased by less than seven million, which means—despite Obama’s boasting about his alleged job growth—the number of jobs created has failed to keep up with population growth, normally considered a poor economic indicator. Additionally, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reports, as of November, there are 95-million Americans out of the labor force, about 14.5 million more than there were when Obama took office. Other economic indicators are similarly troubling. Average annual food stamp enrollment is up by nearly 16 million compared to 2008. The number of Americans who own their homes is the lowest it has been since 1995, the earliest year provided in the U.S. Census Bureau’s most recent report. Thanks in large part to the Obama administration’s government takeover of the student lending industry, the average combined cost of full-time undergraduate tuition, fees and room and board at a four-year college was $25,409 in 2015—25 percent higher in inflation-adjusted dollars than it was in 2008. And outstanding student loan debt now tops $1.3 trillion, the highest in history.

Even worse, if President Obama had prevailed in all his initiatives many of the few positive developments that occurred during his tenure would never have materialized. Between 2009 and 2015, 4.3 million direct, indirect and induced jobs were created because of the increase in domestic oil and gas production, accounting for more than 40 percent of the jobs generated. Obama is no friend to oil and gas producers, however; he has opposed fracking and domestic fossil-fuel development at every turn, denying developers access to millions of acres of oil-rich public lands and waters while rejecting the expansion of the Keystone Pipeline and halting construction of the Dakota Access Pipeline. The president’s signature legislation, the Affordable Care Act (ACA), has also been a disaster. In 2016, health-insurance behemoths Aetna, Humana and UnitedHealth announced the end of their involvement in most of the ACA exchanges in 2017, after each lost hundreds of millions of dollars. Other, smaller insurers are also backing out of the exchanges. As a result, about 1.4 million people in 32 states will be forced to find new health insurance providers or plans. Health insurance prices are also rising rapidly. The Department of Health and Human Services announced in October insurance premiums for the 2016 ACA benchmark plan will increase by an average of 25 percent in states participating in the federal health insurance exchange. And the cherry on top: President Obama has somehow managed to add roughly $10 trillion to the national debt, about as much as every other president in American history combined—creating an even larger economic bubble that could end up making the 2008 crash look like the roaring 1920s. What started with so much hope is about to end in immeasurable disappointment. The most positive thing that can be said about President Obama’s time in office is it’s almost over.

Justin Haskins -- Bio and Archives Justin Haskins is executive editor of The Heartland Institute, a think-tank devoted to free enterprise. A summa cum laude graduate of Richmond University, Justin holds master degrees in government and journalism from Regent University in Virginia Beach, Va. Readers may write him at The Heartland Institute, 3939 North Wilke Road Arlington Heights, Illinois 60004 or e-mail him.

{/exp:ce_cache:it}