We are on a solid path to economic recovery in this country, and we’ve been on that path since the American Recovery Act of 2009 (Obama’s stimulus package) started to shape the economy in April of 2009, but Americans just don’t seem to get it.
According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, President George W. Bush handed an economy over to President Barack Obama in January of 2009 that was losing private sector jobs at the rate of over 800,000 jobs from the previous month. In fact, Bush’s economy had been steadily (and alarmingly) losing private sector jobs almost every month for a year. In December 2008, we’d lost 667,000 private sector jobs more than we lost in November, and in November we lost over 700,000 private sector jobs than we lost in October 2008 (see chart below).
Since President Obama took office in January 2009 and Congress passed his stimulus package in February 2009, the U.S. has been losing less and less jobs each month, and since January 2010, we have steadily been adding private sector jobs, not losing them (see chart below).
Even I was upset when President Bush pushed for and received a bailout for Wall Street in 2008 (in the form of the Troubled Asset Relief Program, aka TARP), and I was skeptical when Obama included assistance for American automakers under Bush’s TARP legislation, but I have to give credit where credit is due. The Bush enacted bailout program worked – even with Obama adding the automakers to the mix. Hundreds of thousands of U.S. jobs were saved in the process, retired workers didn’t lose their pensions and end up on the government dole, and the program that was originally estimated to cost American taxpayers over $700 Billion has only cost us about $70 Billion (and could cost us less than that or even turn a profit).
Now, I understand the process is slow and for those that are currently unemployed and suffering, this economy can’t recover fast enough, but it cannot be denided: This economy is recovering. America is adding private sector jobs to the economy each month, and we are growing stronger and more stable. That’s why I don’t understand why anyone would want to go back to the policies of the laissez-faire economic policies of the Bush Administration that dragged us into this hole in the first place. Why stop something that’s working for the American people and growing the economy?
Of course, if I watched Fox News or listened to Glenn Beck or Rush Limbaugh, I might not know any of these things. I might buy into the idea that our president is an evil, lying, over-spending, anti-colonialist, socialist who needs to be feared because he’s destroying this country. Of course, if I was a Tea Party member, I might not know any of these things, because I’d been filling all my time with fearing/hating government, fearing/hating Muslims, and fearing/hating “the gays” who want to destroy morality.
I’m glad I’m willing to devour information and form my own opinions on this government of ours. I just wish more people would.
Please note: This information comes directly from the United States Bureau of Labor Statistics which is required by law to make reports to the U.S. Government on the state of U.S. Labor. The chart above does not include government jobs, and therefore does not include any of the temporary census workers who were added to the economy in 2010. The chart only focuses on job growth and loss in the private sector of the U.S. Economy.
by Andy Armstrong
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