Sadly, with President Obama, each day is crazier than the
previous one. His latest economic speeches border on the surreal. I
just can’t quite figure out who he thinks his audience is because so
much of what he says doesn’t square with reality.
In a speech Friday in Las Vegas, Obama painted quite a
rosy portrait of his economic record to date -- at least rosy compared
with what we’ve all experienced with our five senses.
Though I don’t intend to go all “Joe Wilson” on him (“You
lie!”), please let me share with you a few, shall we say,
“discrepancies” in his speech, the major theme of which could be
summarized as “I inherited the worst economy since the Depression, and
I saved us from a new depression because I say I did.”
Obama doesn’t merely ignore all empirical evidence that
flies in the face of his claim; he just tells us, astonishingly, that
it is positive evidence. It would be like a thief telling the judge at
his sentencing that but for his heist, his victims would have been
worse off. Or a student telling a math teacher that three minus two
equals four. Consider:
--He twice claimed that he inherited the worst economy
since the Great Depression, which is no less absurd than Bill
Clinton’s claim that he inherited from George H.W. Bush the “worst
economy in 50 years.” Both men conveniently omitted the high misery
index-riddled economy of the worst president in American history
before Barack Obama, Jimmy Carter. Carter’s interest rates reached
15.27 percent. Inflation soared to 13.5 percent. And unemployment grew
to 7.8 percent. Obama also omitted his own record, which is far worse
than the one he “inherited.” His unemployment figures, by the way,
easily outdo Carter’s.