After disappearing from the spotlight for well over a year, former President Obama resurfaced at the University of Illinois on Friday just in time to take credit for the booming economy we’ve seen under President Trump. This comes ahead of the 2018 midterm elections. Trump has systematically dismantled Obama’s legacy via deregulation, tax cuts and by eliminating the individual mandate in Obamacare, so it’s understandable why Obama is desperate for accolades.
Obama spoke before a receptive audience on Friday where he claimed that his administration reversed 40 years of bad economic trends during his eight years in office. He decried “when you hear about how great the economy is doing right now, let’s just remember when this recovery started.” Unfortunately for the former president and thanks to facts, we do know when the recovery began, and it’s happened despite him, not because of him. Here are several reasons why Obama can’t take credit for today’s booming economy:
1) Recovery Summer 2009: Democrats conveniently forget that it was their own policy, the 1977 Community Reinvestment Act, signed into law by then President Jimmy Carter that led to the subprime mortgage crisis during George W. Bush’s presidency. The law coerced banks to create mortgage loan packages for poor people that couldn’t afford to buy homes.
Although the left caused the crisis, they successfully argued that Obama inherited an economy from George W. Bush on the brink of another Great Depression. Obama claims it took him eight years to clean up Bush’s mess. The problem with that argument is thanks to Bush’s stimulus package inherited by Obama, and then Vice President Joe Biden, the two declared victory over the “Great Recession” as early as the summer of 2009. Therefore, the economic downturn Americans experienced afterwards was pure Obama. It was the enactment of Obamacare, his own stimulus package that paid for the temporary jobs that he himself admitted were “not so shovel ready,” and his demonization of America’s job producers that caused consumer confidence to dip.
2) Jobs for college graduates were virtually nonexistent during the Obama era: You may recall during Obama’s administration college graduates had an almost impossible time finding a job. The Daily Caller reported in a column written in 2014 titled “Obama’s Economy in Action! Just 17 Percent of College Graduates Have Real Jobs Waiting,” after Obama spanked Mitt Romney amongst young voters in 2012 by a margin of 67 percent to 30 percent. “Over 80 percent of all graduating seniors have zilch in the way of jobs lined up for their post-campus lives…” Today, under Trump we’ve seen a complete turnaround for all workers. Not only do we have record job numbers amongst blacks and Latinos, but virtually full employment where the employers are competing for employees with hiring incentive packages.
3) Tax Cuts and Jobs Act: Americans are loving their crumbs no thanks to Nancy Pelosi and the Democrats! Unlike Obama, Trump decided to incentivize job creators with the “Tax Cuts and Jobs Act” so they could invest back into their businesses and pay their blue-collar employees more. As a result, consumer confidence has skyrocketed.
4) Manufacturing jobs make a comeback under Trump: Just today, a headline at the liberal Washington Post read “Under Trump, the jobs boom has finally reached blue-collar workers. Will it last?” After I picked my jaw off of the floor I continued to read this:
“Blue-collar jobs are growing at their fastest rate in more than 30 years, helping fuel a hiring boom in many small towns and rural areas that are strong supporters of President Trump ahead of November’s midterm elections. Jobs in goods-producing industries – mining, construction and manufacturing – grew 3.3 percent in the year preceding July, the best rate since 1984, according to a Washington Post analysis.”
5) Hillary couldn’t win on Obama’s record: Lastly, if Obama’s economy was so great, why couldn’t Hillary Clinton ride the wave into the presidency like George H.W. Bush was able to do with Ronald Reagan? The truth is miners, manufactures, construction workers and CEOs were sick of being kicked in the teeth by Obama-led Democrats. Trump offered hope for former Obama voters in Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin that handed him the victory over Hillary in 2016.
I guess in some part Obama does deserve credit for Trump’s economy. The moment he left office things got better.