Donatelli & Shirley: Reagan’s Policies ‘Run Rings’ Around Obama’s

Frank Donatelli and Craig Shirley, both of whom serve on Young America’s Foundation’s Reagan Ranch Board of Governors, have a powerful new op-ed out in CNS News panning President Obama for slow economic growth, writing, “Two percent growth may be the best Obama can do.  Reagan proved that it is certainly not the best America can do.” Read an excerpt below and click here to read the rest. This past week brought more discouraging news about the U.S. economy.   First quarter growth was 0.5 percent, a figure dangerously close to another recession and total job growth for April came in at 160,000, far below expectations.  A real opposition party dedicated to retaking the White House would have been all over this, criticizing the Administration’s pathetic economic record and promising major changes to get America moving again. With the newest revelations that the millennia media rolled over and let Obama scratch their undersides, it’s for sure these leftwing sycophants will tell a tale of lollipops, milk and honey and not the truth. But the reality is this economy is $1.6 trillion behind a normal recovery, according to economist Steve Moore. And the national mood, in the phrase of the average millennial, “sucks.” So let’s have a look at this Administration’s sick joke-like economic performance.  We are in the seventh year of an economic “recovery” which is the worst of any recovery since World War II.  In his first two years, President Obama had overwhelming majorities in Congress and used those majorities to “transform” (he is after all a “transformative” president) the American economy through a trillion dollar stimulus plan, government directed investments in “clean energy” and new federal regulatory regimes to oversee the financial and health care industries.  What has that brought us? Sadly, under Obama, economic growth has averaged 2.2 percent since the recession that he inherited ended in June, 2009.  For the last three quarters ending in March of 2016, the gain is a measly 1.3 percent.  This is not an arcane discussion.  Economic growth of at least 3 percent is necessary to keep unemployment steady, fund the federal government’s commitments and maintain entitlement programs that millions of Americans depend upon.  If, as Mitt Romney noted in 2012, 47 percent of the country has some claim on federal resources, shouldn’t the Administration at least implement economic policies to stabilize those programs?  No wonder a majority of Americans think we are still in a recession. In every measurable way, from real wages to home values to America’s optimism, Reagan’s robust recovery makes Obama’s look pathetic, flaccid and meager.  No wonder Obama made some snarky comments the other day about Reagan’s economic successes, because he sure can’t argue the facts. He surely can’t argue that new discoveries of oil and natural gas are because of him, since he’s argued against new explorations since he first took possession of the White House.