Romney Campaign Press Release - Memo: President Obama's Economic Failure

Memo

To:       Interested Parties

From:   Lanhee Chen, Ph.D., Policy Director

Re:       President Obama's Economic Failure

President Obama has apparently decided to run as the "jobs" candidate, with extensive experience "work[ing] alongside hardworking Americans" in the real economy.  Presumably this is similar to being a hardworking American in the real economy.  You can enjoy his campaign's full memo, describing him as a President who "has taken formidable, decisive steps to protect free enterprise," here. The President will have all year to elaborate on how his time as a community organizer helped him understand the implications of tax increases for investment decisions, the impact that overregulation can have on business confidence, and the way that trade policies can support or disadvantage American exporters.  He can also describe for voters how his law school lecturing duties showed him the extraordinary economic potential of the nation's energy resources or the challenges that power-grabbing union bosses pose to businesses and workers.   Best of all, he can explain how his $787 billion stimulus bill, his $450 billion proposed second stimulus, his thousands of pages Dodd-Frank and Obamacare legislation, his unprecedented increases in regulation, and his handouts to politically-connected union bosses and "green" energy projects served to decisively protect free enterprise. But no amount of speech-making will persuade the American people that his economic record has been anything other than an unmitigated disaster. 

• In January 2009, the month President Obama assumed office, the total U.S. public debt outstanding was $10.6 trillion. Today, it exceeds more than $15 trillion —the size of America's entire economy. The American people are all too well aware that this is money that they must eventually pay back. 

• In January 2009, some 22 million Americans were unemployed, underemployed, or no longer looking for work. Today, that number has risen to nearly 24 million Americans. The average duration of unemployment has risen from 19.8 weeks to 40.8 weeks. In January 2009, 142.2 million people were employed. Today, that number has fallen to 140.8 million.

• In January 2009, the unemployment rate stood at 7.8%.  It has been above 8% for every month since, despite the Obama administration's claim that their $787 billion stimulus bill would avoid such a high level of unemployment entirely.  

• Meanwhile, the tepid "recovery" that the Obama campaign proudly touts as good enough for the American people is in fact no such thing.  In October 2009 the unemployment rate peaked at 10.0%.  Since that time, America's work-eligible population has grown by four million people, yet the labor force has not grown.  Had the labor force continued to grow in line with the population, unemployment today would be... 10.0%.  The entire decline in the unemployment rate is the result of people leaving the labor force or choosing not to enter in the first place.  In short, the labor market has not improved; it has simply produced discouragement.  Welcome to the Obama economy.

 10 Ways Barack Obama is Destroying the Middle Class

 The statistics paint a sobering picture for just what President Obama has achieved in his fight to "help the middle class reclaim a sense of economic security that will benefit the entire economy":  

• Unemployment: The number of people unemployed has grown by over one million.  

• Long-term Unemployment: The average duration of unemployment has more than doubled, to an astonishing 40.8 weeks.

• Jobs: Nearly 1.7 million jobs have been lost.

• Income: Median household income has declined by nearly $1,000.

• Poverty: The number of people in poverty has grown by over six million.

• Hunger: Food stamp participation has increased by more than 14 million people, to a devastating 46.2 million.

• Health Care: Average family health insurance premiums have increased by more than $1,500.

• Energy: Gas prices have nearly doubled, to $3.38 per gallon.

• Housing: Foreclosures have spiked to a record one-million-plus annually.

• Debt: Each family's share of the publicly-held national debt has skyrocketed by more than $35,000, to nearly $90,000.

 When Barack Obama ran for the presidency, he promised to "fundamentally transform the United States of America."  Sadly, he is succeeding.  He is pushing America toward a European-style entitlement society that would have been unrecognizable to our parents' generation - let alone the Founders' - with diminishing economic opportunity and ever-growing government programs and regulations.   The election this November will be about whether the America want to continue in this direction, or reverse course and rebuild the Opportunity Society that has made her the greatest in the history of the world.  Mitt Romney looks forward to offering voters that choice.