And They Continue to Tell Us It’s Getting Better?

Written by Micah Clark

Over the past four years or so, President Barack Obama and his Administration have been telling Americans that things are getting better from the economy that President George W. Bush allegedly destroyed.  Remember the “summer of recovery” a few years back, which only Vice-President Joe Biden really seemed to believe and tout beyond the Fourth of July.  The Obama recovery was supposed to emerge from the unprecedented levels of deficit spending and massive amount of stimulus dollars poured into various places and certain industries.

Instead, gas prices have risen and held steady at two to three times their level under President Bush. This has driven higher food and other prices that are squeezing American family budgets.  We also have increased health insurance costs that we were supposed to decrease with the passage of Obamacare. To make matters worse, unemployment has been higher for longer (43 months above 8 percent, 30 months above 9 percent) during the Obama “recovery” than any time period, recession or not, since the Great Depression.

Now, estimates from Sentier Research using the Census Bureau’s Current Population Survey show that the typical American household income has dropped more than twice as much during the years of President Obama’s “recovery” as it did during the recession occurring at the end of the Bush presidency.

Real median household income fell 1.8 percent during the Bush recession, but has fallen another 4.4 percent during this “recovery.”

That means that an average family lost $1,002 (from $55,480 to $54,478) of income in the Bush recession.  Since that recession ended in June 2009, families have lost another $2,380 (from $54,478 to $52,098) during the Obama recovery.   That national income drop includes government payouts such as unemployment and aid to needy families.  This undermines former Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi’s (D) claim that such aid serves as an effective economic stimulus.  Increasing the cost and size of government while dribbling out some of the taxpayer’s money through welfare programs is not working.