Those Pesky Facts

Those pesky facts

A recent Star Democrat letter writer criticized other writers for twisting the facts, cited statistics resulting primarily from the recession, and concluded that we need change in the White House. It may be a good idea to compare President Obama’s results to those of other recent presidents.

We have had high rates of unemployment during this recession; but according to US News, current job growth lags only slightly behind that following the recession of 1990, and surpasses our recovery from the 2001 recession during the Bush administration. Even President Reagan wasn’t faring any better at this point. He had over 10% unemployment two years after the Economic Recovery Tax Act.

While some of our current job growth resulted from an increase in the number of federal employees, our government is proportionally smaller than either the Reagan or Bush governments. According the Office of Budget Management there are now far fewer federal employees per 1,000 population. (This in spite of the fact that President Bush had a Republican Congress for years longer than any other recent president enjoyed a comparable advantage.) Bush had 12.3 federal employees per 1,000. Reagan had 11.9. Obama has 8.4.

Our debt is indeed over $14 trillion, but Bush initiatives are responsible for far more of our debt than Obama initiatives. While the stimulus and health care bills may cost $1.78 trillion, the Bush prescription drug bill, tax cuts, and wars are estimated to cost over $4 trillion.

The writer was right about one thing. Facts are facts.