Usually around election day, the R2G turns away from Griping and focuses on important issues concerning it's readers. In less than two weeks, we will be going out to vote in one of the most important elections in our lifetime. As we move closer to deciding the fate of our great nation, one of the questions that many of the voters in the U.S. have been asking themselves before they go to the polls on November 6th is, "Are we better off now than we were 4 years ago"? This is an important question because it seems our country is headed down a path of destruction which many either blame on our current President Barack Obama or former President George W. Bush. Over the next several days I will be dissecting and analyzing a few topics such as unemployment, deficit and foreign affairs. I think once this research has been completed, you will have a better handle on who you should really vote for.
The first area I would like to analyze is unemployment with numbers coming directly from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Are we better off now than we were 4 years ago when it come to people being out of work? In 2001 when George W. Bush took office, the unemployment rate was at 4.1%. As Bush stumbled through his presidency, the rate wavered between 4.5% and 5.7% until his last 4 months in office where it hit a high of 7.3% in December of 2008. At the beginning of President Obama's term, unemployment hit 7.8% in January 2009 and climbed to a 10 year high of 10% in October of 2009. Since that time, the number has decreased just about every month to what it is right now, 7.8%. It appears that the increase in unemployment actually began in the final quarter of Bush's presidency and continued to climb throughout the first two years of the Obama regime. Many political experts claim that the numbers from a new President do not start to reflect his administration until the 2nd year in office. If this is the case, then the high jobless rate of 10% can be attributed to the Bush administration.
So, are we better off now than we were 4 years ago? In January of 2009, when president Obama took office the unemployment rate was 7.8%. Right now it is 7.8%. According to the numbers, we are neither worse or better off than we were 4 years ago. However, President Obama's administration did take the jobless rate from 10% in October 2009 and lowered it to 7.8% in September 2012. The question you have to ask yourself is will this decline continue if Obama is elected to another term? The current trends show that it will. Unemployment in 2012 has never exceeded 8.3% and has dropped just about every month since October 2009. The other question is will Mitt Romney do any better? No one can answer these questions for sure. It appears that the answer to OUR question is neither yes or no. We are right where we were 4 years ago with the trends leaning toward improvement in 2013 and beyond.
Comments
Post a Comment