Save Jerseyans: as we close in on election day and as President Obama prepares to leave office in January, it is important for us to reflect on the last eight years. Much of this year has focused on a dramatic presidential campaign and contentious congressional and senatorial elections. But I submit that as a country, we must take stock of the direction we are headed in. This brings up the age old question:
Are we better off today than we were eight years ago? Said another way, are we better off under President Obama than we were before he took office?
Americans are divided on President Obama’s job performance. According to Real Clear Politics, Barack Obama’s average approval rating over the course of the last few weeks is 51%, while his average disapproval rating is 45%. However, over the course of the last month, according to Real Clear Politics, polling has found that, on average, 63% of Americans say we are headed in the wrong direction as a nation.
So, what have the policies of the last eight years been? How have they worked out for all of us?
Here at home, President Obama has imposed economic policies that have led to slow growth and more debt. He passed a massive stimulus package that was supposed to reduce unemployment, and unemployment skyrocketed following the package’s implementation. This $787 billion bill, passed along party lines, was filled with various pork projects. According to The National Center for Policy Analysis, the Obama stimulus package created 32 new government programs, increased federal spending for 150 federal programs, and just 3% of stimulus funds were dedicated to improving the nation’s infrastructure, despite Democrats selling it as a program that would create “shovel ready jobs.”
President Obama also signed into law a health care law that raises taxes, cuts medicare, and hurts businesses and workers alike. Obamacare mandates that employers cover all employees working more than 30 hours each week with a health insurance plan approved by the federal government. This hurts employers who want to hire more workers, and it hurts workers ability to find employment. The non-partisian Congressional Budget Office has also said that by 2021, between 6 and 7 million Americans will lose their employer-based health insurance coverage. Just this week it was reported that health insurance premiums have increased by an average of 22% this year.
Barack Obama has added over $100 billion worth of regulations to our economy, including the Clean Power Act which is going to cost Americans $800 billion in increased energy costs according to America’s Power. Most of these regulations have been implemented by the federal bureaucracy, not an act of Congress. One new, massive regulation Congress passed and the President did sign was Dodd-Frank. This law essentially places burdensome regulations on the banking industry that large banks can afford, but community banks can’t. The law also makes it more difficult for many small businesses to gain access to credit.
Obama also signed into law a continuation of the Export-Import Bank, a bank that gives money to foreign entities purchasing products from the U.S., something Obama himself once said was “little more than corporate welfare.” He has appointed Federal Reserve Chairs who continue to devalue our currency by injecting trillions in cash into our economy while holding interest rates at an artificially low level.
What have the results of these policies been?
Our economy is stagnant. President Obama is the first President since Herbert Hoover, as of this writing, to preside over 3% GDP growth. Wealth inequality has grown, poverty has increased to a 50-year high, the number of Americans who have been unemployed long-term continues to not bounce back following the great recession, wages remain stagnant for workers, the number of Americans on food stamps has grown by 15 million since 2009, and businesses are closing at a faster rate than they are being formed for the first time since the 1970s. On top of that, Obamacare is falling apart as premiums continue to skyrocket, entitlement programs continue to burden federal budgets, and we owe $19 trillion in debt.
Globally, President Obama has made deals with our enemies that undermine our national security interests, commitment to freedom, and our relationships with our allies. Barack Obama opened up U.S. relations with Cuba without demanding the Castro regime improve its human rights record and hand over criminals, including New Jersey’s own Joanne Chesimard who was convicted of killing a state trooper in 1973, to our government. He negotiated a deal with Iran that gives them sanctions relief without forcing them to end their nuclear program. He negotiated the New Start Treaty with Russia, which according to the Former Heritage Foundation President Edwin Feulner would definitely reduce our nuclear capabilities without definitely reducing Russia’s. At the same time, it has been well documented that President Obama has created tension between our country and both Israel and England.
The bottom line, Save Jerseyans, is that Barack Obama’s policies have let us down.
But make no mistake about it, we still live in the greatest nation on earth despite our challenges. We enjoy stable institutions of government, a justice system that is fundamentally fair, and freedoms that are all too rare in this world. We simply must reverse the failed policies of the last eight years and promote policies aimed at limiting the size and scope of government, letting the free market work, and we must follow the Constitution.
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