Not often in American history do we find our newly elected Presidents assuming office facing a economic calamity, massive job losses and a financial meltdown along with record budget deficits and debt. In fact it has happened only twice in the last 83 years. The great depression of 1929 and the second great depression of 2008, and both happened on the republican watch.
We know how democratic President Franklin Roosevelt rallied the people with his policies and brought the country back to economic health and put the country back to work. That story has already been written in history. Now we have another democratic President, Barack Obama who has been dealing with the second great republican depression of 2008. The job of returning our country and its people to economic health is not yet complete but we do know how much has been accomplished by the Obama administration so far in his first term in office.
The President's policies, including the stimulus, opposed by the republicans in congress reversed the massive job losses that hit 700,000 a month in 2008. That was the first step in new job creation that has added over 5.2 million jobs in the past 30 straight months. Unemployment that reached 10% for one month and was predicted by economist to stay above 9% for all of 2011 and 2012 was at 7.8% at the end of September 2012.
The federal budget deficit hit a yearly record of $1.42 trillion at the end of Bush's last fiscal year and still stands as a record today. Obama's first three fiscal year budgets ended in deficits of $1.29, $1.2 and $1.1 trillion, still high but less than Bush's record and Bush inherited the greatest economy, greatest job creation and greatest balanced budgets and surpluses. President Obama's fourth fiscal year budget that will end 9/30/13 is projected to come in with a deficit of less than a trillion dollars. Progress has indeed been made on cutting the federal budget deficit on Obama's watch.
Total federal spending during Bush's first three fiscal years increased a total of 21% over the previous three fiscal year budgets. At the end of Obama's first three fiscal year budgets total spending was down 1.7% in his first year, up 4% in his second year and down 1.7% in his third year for a total increase in federal spending for Obama's first three years of 6/10th of a percent. No republican President has cut federal spending in over 52 years. So much for republicans being fiscal conservatives.
All economic indicators are positive along with job creation. The country and its people have come a long way since the second great republican depression. We still have much room for improvement and the President's policies will continue to move the country in the right direction. Republicans in congress still fefuse to do any thing that helps the President and the country. They are traitors to the people who elected them to do their job and are traitors to their country for their unAmerican behavior.
I wrote a commentary early in Obama's administration that it would be a democratic President that turned things around for the country and its people and President Obama has lived up to the challenge. Presidents Roosevelt, Clinton and Obama have all lived up to the democratic party's pledge to govern according to the needs of the country and its people and have not succumbed to an ideology that preaches division, religious intolerance and greed. And that says it all.
All budget numbers above taken from the CBO records and or Treasury Department reports.
