Obama Owns the Economy – So what Does he Own?

Desperate to move past the disastrous legacy of the previous administration the GOP is demanding that Obama own the economy today. Fair enough – let him own it. Now let’s look at exactly what it is he owns.

Render to Bush the things that are Bush’s and to Obama the things that are Obama’s

When Obama assumed office in January of 2009 the Unites States was in the midst of its first trillion dollar deficit. Don’t fall for the claim that the 2009 budget was Obama’s. George Bush signed off on it and the 2009 fiscal year started on Bush’s watch.

The deficit is now under $500 million. Or put another way, it is less as a percentage of GDP than in any year of the Reagan administration.

The investor class is celebrating. The stock market has more than doubled since the President’s 2009 inauguration. The housing market is rebounding.

And America still has a car industry.

Too many people are unemployed and conservatives carp on the slowness of the recovery. But surely it is better to suffer a second-rate recovery than a first-rate recession. It takes chutzpah to complain that the fix is sub-par when you were the one who broke it in the first place.

Too many people are receiving a government benefit. But that includes full-time employees and members of the military. Shouldn’t a full time job pay enough to feed a family and pay the rent? Shouldn’t serving your country guarantee a living wage?

The GOP says that growing income equality is Obama’s fault, but they have resisted his stimulus efforts. And the tax code continues to favor the ultra-rich, whose income depends far more on unearned income than other economic strata – including the merely very rich.

Argue all you want about the meaning of the 8 million signed up for Obamacare. The fact is that Americans have more access to quality health care than at any time in the nation’s history. The faults in the system – most notably the 5 million left out of the Medicaid system by intransigent GOP governors – can be squarely blamed on hysterical opposition. It would be one thing if Republicans were a arguing the merits of a different plan. But they have nothing to offer but “NO!”

Overall, the rate of the increase in health spending has gone down. How much is due to the ACA? There is open to debate. But down is down.

“Aha, what about gas prices” the Tea Party bleats. There, they have a fact to support their case. On Inauguration Day, gas was $1.86 a gallon. Today it is $3.65. But commodity prices are volatile. A year before Obama, gas was $4.12 ($4.54 in 2014 prices).

Let’s look at another commodity – gold. Its price has been declining, which, far from being a harbinger of a poor economy, is a sign of strength. Money flees to gold in times of economic woe. In rebounding economies demand for it goes down.

Inflation is nonexistent. Government revenues as a percent of GDP are the lowest since the 1950s. Taxes are historically low (The Tea Party please take note). And there are nearly 400,000 fewer civilian federal employees than after eight years of Reagan.

The number of US troops in war zones is the lowest since 2001. And far fewer are dying. Foreign affairs are fraught with uncertainty. But the threat from terrorists remains muted. In fact, the President has been roundly criticized for going too far with NSA surveillance and his love of drones.

Although quick to beat the President up for his “permissive” immigration policies, conservatives ignore the record number of deportations – another area in which liberals criticize him for going too far.

Is the Obama administration perfect? Not even close. But when contrasted with the previous lot it looks good. And he has had to do it in the face of a monolithic “just say no” policy from the GOP.

In 1980 Ronald Reagan famously asked the American voter if he was better off than he had been four years earlier. Asked today, the answer would be “yes”.