In Biden’s Universe, Trump Just Enjoying Obama Economy [OPINION]
“President Trump inherited an economy from the Obama-Biden administration that was given to him, just like he inherited everything else in his life.” — former Vice President and Senator Joe Biden on May 18, 2019, in Philadelphia
Really, Joe? Really?
The "Obama Economy" began under great duress as Mr. Obama entered the White House in 2009. The housing market caused a tremendous mess in the global market and the Bush White House, as well as the Congress that both Senator Obama and Biden were part of, printed $700 billion to loan to banks in the world record biggest "investment mulligan" ever.
Let's be honest, the Democrats were the majority in both houses of Congress since January of 2007 and both Biden and Obama had zero solutions about what to do and how to stop the crash at that time.
And while the coddling media pretended that these two came down from the clouds to help clean up the Bush mistakes, many of us know better.
The so-called stimulus plan was a flop. President Obama (and Biden, too, as you can see in his quote) asked the Democrat-controlled Congress to borrow $787 billion more, and they got it. Shovel-ready jobs and other catchphrases that seemed to get more consideration than the plan itself were dished out to the public.
People were excited to see what the results would bring because the new cool kids in the Oval Office were telling us how wonderful it was going to be.
To summarize the findings in US News & World Report, the Democrats put a lot of their sign holders to work (unions) by paving roads and painting bridges to many cities—cities that had no jobs.
The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act was promised by Obama and Biden to cut deficit spending in half by the end of the first term in 2012. It didn't.
It promised to grow the economy by 4.6 percent by 2012. It didn't. In fact, no president in the history of the USA ever saw a failure to grow the economy by three percent in any one of his 32 quarters. A new record. Congratulations, Joe?
It promised that the deficit would shrink to 3.5 percent of the GDP by 2012. It didn't. Growth ended up being a lethargic two percent and unemployment hovered around eight percent. There was one thing they did elevate though: the deficit. It ballooned up to 8.5 percent of the GDP. Congratulations again, Joe?
I'm just trying to imagine what a CEO like Trump could have done with all of that "Mullligan money" printed by a community organizer like Obama to defibrillate the economy back in 2009. I doubt he'd have called for it in the first place, but it might have been fun to watch.
Trump has brought his empire from the ashes back to a multi-billion dollar success in his resumé. Unlike his predecessor, who along with his VP Biden helped to make a mess out of the economy as part of the controlling party in the Senate, Trump has a track record to succeed.
In this June 2016 video, President Obama is campaigning for Hillary Clinton, and now that we have hindsight, it is breathtaking to just listen to him insist that Trump could not pull off exactly what he is pulling off today.
Biden and Obama told you in 2016 there was no way to get out of the awful trade deals that put our economy on the ropes. As you can see, they promised no manufacturing jobs would be returning to our shores.
In fact, the fearless leaders of the prior White House were about to get us into yet another bad trade deal with the Trans-Pacific Partnership, which President Trump scrapped in just his third day in office.
Well, we now know how wrong President Obama was and that, in his first year alone, President Trump's policies have coaxed more than 345,000 manufacturing jobs back to the American states. The not-so-friendly-to-Trump CNBC gave us that statistic.
In the article, they did try to slide in a statistic that favored President Obama but was a highly unfair comparison. They pointed to 2011, when manufacturing was 12.3 percent of the GDP compared to Trump's 2017, which was slightly smaller at 11.6 percent.
The difference there is that most of the explanation for the 2011 manufacturing came from companies who were building parts for the government to repair infrastructure with money borrowed from the taxpayers.
The best way to explain that is this: imagine you are in a small boat in the middle of the sea because your ship sank. After days in the sun and with no water, survival experts advise you to drink your own urine. That is pretty much what we did in 2011.
In 2017, private enterprise with sustained growth projections came back within our shores and began building here thanks to the friendlier policies of the Trump Administration.
Oh, and in the first quarter of 2019, the GDP saw for Trump something Obama and Biden never saw: a growth of three percent or more with a 3.2% result.
Congratulations, Joe?
This is Trump's economy, bucko. No one is buying your spiel.
There is still a colossal amount of corrections needed for any real celebrating. Like a cargo ship on the open seas at cruising speed, the nation's economy cannot stop on a dime. Trump's deficit spending and debt count are at record highs.
They will and should be watched very closely by Democrats and economists as we approach the 2020 elections, including the re-election bid of President Trump.
But who in their right mind believes Biden on the economy?
Biden was basically tossed out of the 1988 presidential race (yes, he's been trying that long) for plagiarizing a speech made in Britain and also for lying about his academic achievements. And, like always, he has the Robert Culp kind of vibe but packs the wallop of a damp, three-month-old sponge once you actually look into his words.
Ken Pittman is the host of The Ken Pittman Show on 1420 WBSM New Bedford. He can be heard Saturdays from 9 a.m. to noon. Contact him at ken.pittman@