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Subscribe to RSSIs the nation better off than it was four years ago?
The answer largely depends on the statistics you pick.
With President Barack Obama beginning his second term, there are plenty of numbers suggesting that the country is on more solid footing than it was when he first took office on Jan. 20, 2009.
NBC's Mark Murray and Domenico Montanaro take a look back at President Obama's promises kept and promises broken in his first term.
The Dow Jones Industrial average is up 5,550 points since then. The economy is growing (instead of contracting). Consumer confidence has nearly doubled (though it remains below where it was before the Great Recession). And a larger percentage of Americans believe the country is headed in the right direction (but a majority still think it’s on the wrong track).
On the other hand, there’s data indicating that the nation isn’t better off than it was four years ago – and that the Great Recession continues to take a toll on families. Median household income (adjusted for inflation) is lower than it was in 2009. And more Americans live below the poverty level than they did four years ago.
And some numbers are exactly the same. The current unemployment rate is at 7.8%, which is where it was in Jan. 2009 (though it’s down from a high of 10% in Oct. 2009). And right now, there are roughly 49 million Americans without health insurance, which is identical to where it was in 2009. (The health-insurance mandate under the health-care law doesn’t kick in until 2014.)
Here are other figures over the last four years:
-- The number of U.S. troops in Iraq has dwindled from nearly 140,000 to just 200, while the presence in Afghanistan has increased from 34,000 to 66,000.
-- The federal public debt has increased from $10.6 trillion in Jan. 2009 to $16.4 trillion now.
-- The number of Democrats serving in the U.S. House, U.S. Senate, and in governorships across the country has declined.
Below is a look at Obama’s presidency – so far – by the numbers. The “then” figure is the best-available figure for when Obama was taking office in 2009. And the “now” is the most recent figure. First Read, in 2009, ran a statistical then-vs.-now comparison of George W. Bush’s presidency.
Unemployment rate
Then: 7.8% (Jan. 2009)
Now: 7.8% (Dec. 2012)
Dow Jones Industrial Average
Then: 7,949.09 (close as of Jan. 20, 2009)
Now: 13,534.89 (close as of Jan. 15, 2013)
Gross Domestic Product
Then: -5.3% (1st quarter of 2009)
Now: +3.1% (3rd quarter of 2012)
Consumer Confidence (1985=100)
Then: 37.4 (Jan. 2009)
Now: 65.1 (Dec. 2012)
Americans who believe the country is headed in the right direction
Then: 26% of adults (Jan. 2009 NBC/WSJ poll)
Now: 41% of adults (Dec. 2012 NBC/WSJ poll)
Median household income (adjusted for inflation)
Then: $52,195 (Census data for 2009)
Now: $50,054 (Census data for 2011)
Americans living below the poverty level
Then: 43.6 million (Census data for 2009)
Now: 46.2 million (Census data for 2011)
Americans without health insurance
Then: 49.0 million (Census data for 2009)
Now: 48.6 million (Census data for 2011)
Americans receiving food stamps
Then: 33.5 million (average for 2009)
Now: 46.6 million (average for 2012)
Federal budget deficit
Then: -1.4 trillion (FY 2009)
Now: -$1.1 trillion (FY 2012 projected)
Federal public debt
Then: $10.6 trillion (Jan. 20, 2009)
Now: $16.4 trillion (Jan. 14, 2013)
Federal spending as a percentage of GDP
Then: 25.2% (FY 2009)
Now: 24.3% (FY 2012 projected)
Median sales price of new homes
Then: $208,600 (Jan. 2009)
Now: $246,200 (Nov. 2012)
Number of Democrats in U.S. House of Representatives
Then: 257 (2009)
Now: 201 (2013)
Number of Democrats (plus independents caucusing with Dems) in U.S. Senate
Then: 58 (Jan. 2009)
Now: 55 (Jan. 2013)
Number of Democratic governors
Then: 28 (2009)
Now: 19 (2013)
Number of U.S. troops in Iraq
Then: 139,500 (Jan. 2009)
Now: 200 (Jan. 2013)
Number of U.S. troops in Afghanistan
Then: 34,400 (Jan. 2009)
Now: 66,000 (Jan. 2013)
NBC’s Courtney Kube contributed to this article.
Leave a Comment:
Johntho: The numbers do not lie. Even the numbers posted in the article make Obama look worse. You cannot deny the facts. "The math doesn't add up" as our 'great' president once said.
obummer has polarized this country like never before. First it was Dems against Reps. Then poor v rich. Then environmentalists v non-environmentalists. And now gun owners v non gun owners. There isn't much left. Oh, I forgot the big one, blacks against whites. The revolution is coming.
Well said, and right on-point. The "party of tolerance" is no such thing, and sadly, it's too late.
Wrong,that was bushes job,,
I won't be coming back to this unbiased publication anymore. They removed my post which was a direct quote from the great divider. Later
They removed nothing. There is a trick to copy/paste stuff here and having it stick.
Sure are a lot of sore losers out there!
What's worse that a sore loser? A BAD WINNER!
We need more of this type of reporting. Black and white figures. No fluff. Thanks for this. When people have hard facts like this it is much easier to ignore the rhetoric.
Considering what he walked into,I say if he had more help from the other side we would ,have an even better economy now
Maybe things wouldn't be as good if the other side had "helped".......if you mean helping is just giving in to all of his demands. Obama hasn't had a plan to fix the economy. Many of his policies actually hurt the economy and probably slowed the recovery. They made many businesses afraid to hire.
Can you name one thing where the TPRepubs have 'given in'?
Businesses were/are afraid to hire because of the uncertainty caused by those evil TP'ers in the House. They worry about TP'ers losing their leash because of the ineptitude of the current speaker of the house.
Bulletman,
These numbers are really a snapshot in time and do not tell the true story (though they are generally horrible). We should compare todays numbers to what he promised.
Reduce the deficit by 50% by end of first term (not even close)
Unemployment under 6% should he recieve the stimulus (ditto...no where in sight)
The food stamp number is off the charts. I think the most disturbing number is the reduction in the median income. Simply brutal. Obama is totally screwing the middle class and his empty promises are now showing themselves. It is ironic that most of his voting block are the ones who are going to be decimated. Maybe they will have learned a lesson after four more years of this lying, incompetent idiot.
The guy has been a complete failure as POTUS and set this country back years.
BTW, when is Gitmo going to close?
So this article means what?
How about instead of attempting to show that somehow "life is better" under Obama, they mention things like the hospital in Pennsylvania that just announced they are CLOSING their obstetrics wing because of OBAMACARE? How about they mention the attack on the First Amendment by Sebelius and Obama and how THEY are deciding what your religous beliefs actually DON'T count when it comes to paying for abortion pills or abortions themselves under Obamacare, instead of the CITIZENS of this nation being allowed to follow their beliefs like that are GUARANTEED in the Constitution. How about they mention that while MILLIONS of Americans are being FORCED into Obamacare, supporters of Obama are getting "exemptions"?
How about they mention the almost 25 MILLION Americans that are under/unemployed?
How about they mention the out and out LIES by Obama? You know, like cutting the deficit in HALF and not only NOT doing it, but now demanding that there be NO CUTS TO SPENDING. About REDUCING our debt, and not only NOT doing it, but demanding at one point that he be given the unConstitutional ability to RAISE our debt without Congressional action? Like supposedly "creating or saving" 6 million jobs with his "stimulus" that doesn't seem to have done much of anything except fill the pork barrels of Democrats. Like bailing out the unions...oops, I mean Chrysler and GM, and giving 60& ownership of GM to the UNIONS at no cost to them. And while GM still OWES the taxpayers of this natioon over 25 Billion dollars them giving themselves $7000 bonuses for thier "record profits", not counting their debt in their profits of course. Like doing something as simple as closing Gitmo?
Nah, we need a list from MSDNC showing how much "better off" we are under King Barack the First instead anything that actually might show him being the out and out Failure that he has been.
Cheryl,
You must be copying my posts. I could not have said it better. This guy is Lance Armstrong in the White House. I really think he is a pathological liar.
After you get shot,in a school,you can go,get some Obama care to patch you,up,,what a nice world we live in
America deserves better
what pledge of allegiance di he and his wife ever make. You talk about racism here got to laugh at that because they are the leaders of it. Your so-called leader Johntho is way ahead of Carter or GW and I am a Democrat who never voted for him and won't. He is a liar and BSer first class...typical
have a good day
The debt is 100% the responsibility of the Republicans. They have, for over three decades, intentionally run up the debt as part of their "starve the beast" philosophy. That tactic has completely failed in its objective to reduce the size of government (in fact GW Bush massively increased the size of the federal government, even creating a new cabinet level bureaucracy) however they have succeeded in running up a huge debt.
Below is a right winger ADMITTING that their strategy is to INTENTIONALLY increase the debt.
Peter17
“The real winner with this legislation is the Tea Party and Grover Norquist. Their mission has NEVER been to protect the top 2% or anyone else. It is to force the end to "Big Government" in Washington DC.
The Tea Party was born because neither Democrats or Republicans were ever in the mood to cut spending and reduce the size of government. By handing out the pork to the folks back home, they kept on getting re-elected. That means the TP needed a different approach, and they found one - "Starve the Beast". If you cannot get Congress to pass legislation to lower spending, prevent them from raising the tax revenue needed to run "Big Government". Therefore they oppose tax increases of any kind on anyone. Less money will eventually mean smaller government.
So what does Obama do?? He makes almost all the Bush tax cuts permanent, cutting federal tax revenue over the next 10 years by $4 trillion. The TP probably cannot believe it because Obama has signed a "death warrant" on big government. Can you imagine anyone voting to raise taxes by trillions of dollars any time soon??? Not likely. The only way to get the country onto some kind of sustainable financial course now will be even more trillions of spending cuts than people were anticipating. Say goodbye to big government over the next 10-20 years. There now is no way to fund even a scaled back big government in Washington DC, thanks to Obama.”
williy, my god willie george bush has been outa office for 4 years. evidently you don't even know who the president is. you do not accept responsibility unless you are a leader. we have not had a leader in 4 years now. all of us , with our tax dollars have bought and paid for every vote osama got. just one example solindra gave obama a $30,000.00 donation in 2008. they were paid back 500 billion of our tax dollars, and closed down without creating one job. i say congress should not give him one more dime.
President Obama is an exceptional person. You have to be exceptional to be elected President. He is especially good at reading a speech from a teleprompter.
His weakness is that he never really had the real world experience to understand how the economy works, and his advisers were all academics with a similar lack of real world experience.
He is also not accustomed to having people disagree with him, and he doesn't negotiate effectively. When he wants to get something done, rather than negotiate, he attempts to force the issue by manipulating the media, something that his team does very well. They believe that media pressure will help them achieve their goals without compromise.
A lot of folks will jump in and accuse the Republicans of obstructionism, failure to compromise, etc. This is true. But as the President, it is incumbent on Obama to exercise leadership and bring everyone together in solutions for the benefit of the country.
___ \_/ | | | | | | | __|__ | ^ | | | \ \_/ / '._.'J. - You forgot to draw little piles of excrement to shovel. Cute.
Gee I don't remember the democratic leaders in congress getting together in a clandestine meeting to make George Bush fail as a president on his first inaugaral day or holding him hostage on budget issues or Reid saying in public their goal is to remove him from office or... So adjusted for historical record of non-cooperation by repubs compared to dems in Bush's or other repub presidents terms since end of WWII, Obama and the dems have done pretty well. Maybe that is because most of his policies agreed with Reagan's, Eisenhower's, Nixon's compared to current repub party.....
You don't remember one of the most egregious? Pelosi trying to run her own alternative international diplomacy to undercut Bush?
Gimme a break.
Score on efforts to hurt a president: Repubs - Infinity, Pelosi - 1
My God, we needed an alternative diplomatic effort under Bush. His was completely ineffective, if it even existed.
Amy - You libs would be screaming bloody murder if Boehner launched his own diplomatic mission to Syria, and implied that Obama didn't have a clue about what to do.
Obama has accomplished a lot in years. Managed to take the strongest and most powerful Nation in the world and has nearly destroyed it. Has done more long term harm to this nation than any foreign adversary in our history AND it was probably done to us by a foreign national that fradulently claims to be an american! Obama's only accomplishment has been to make the second worst presdident in American History, Jimmy Carter, look presidencial by comparison.
That's not true. The American auto industry is profitable again for the first time in almost a decade, and that is thanks to President Obama's leadership. Home sales are up and prices are rebounding. Now, if Republicans would stop threatening to tank the economy with their silly political games....we could be headed towards another Bill Clinton-era boom, in my opinion.
totally ignorant.....FORD MOTOR CO. did fine without obama....obama's so-called bail-out of GM was simply a bribe to the UAW.....
mcpaddywack
Again, not true....if it makes you any happier, Polifact lets George Bush share the credit:
Do you think the UAW only works at GM? I believe FORD also has UAW representation.
Sorry to burst your bubble.
United We Stand. Divided We Fall
obama has damaged our nation beyond belief.......most of all he has divided the american people almost as badly as they were divided during the civil war.....how did this stooge get re-elected??.....oh yeah....free government cheese for the deadbeats and freeloaders......
exit polls show the least educated whites voted for Romney. Every government cheese-eater I personally know, votes Republican. Go figure.
mcpaddy- 46.6 million on food stamps now! Unbelievable.
13.1 million more collecting food stamps just since Obama took over the White House.
Amy - no the government cheese eaters voted for O BOMB O - they wanted to keep their free handouts and Obamaphone..........you got it ass backwards.
It is absolutely bizarre the world that conservatives live in!
Please see post 1.48. And for the love of God, think for yourselves! I cannot believe anyone could say these false things if they hadn't been extraordinarily misled by the conservative entertainment industry.
Again, Obama inherited an economy in free fall (GDP shrinking 5.7%, 700,000 job losses per month, US dollar declining, unemployment on its way to 10.2%, DJIA on its way to 6600, etc.)
This was not an economy at rock bottom. It was a bad economy falling towards worse. It took a year to bottom out and turn around. Blaming Obama for bad performance in 2009 is insane. It's like saying your car breaks fail if they don't stop you in 1 inch when you were going 60 mph. Things in 2009 were really, really, really bad and getting worse. It takes time to turn around something as large as the US economy.
It you compare the national performance to the bottom values, then we have had stunning improvement.
DJIA from 6600 to 13,570
Unemployment from 10.2% to 7.8%
Job losses from 700,000/month to job creation of 200,000/month
GDP shrinking at 5.7%/yr to growing at 3% per year
National debt growing at 14%GDP/year to 3%GDP/year, and on track to start shrinking in 2014
I cannot believe that any sane person, any rational person, could look at the truth and decide that Obama is a "failure." You guys who think it must be totally misled and totally ignorant of economic reality.
noncoms
The Great Recession ended in June 2009. Now tell me what did Obama do in 5 months that ended the Great Recession?
obama knows nothing has nothing to do with the economy.......he divided the american people to win a stinking election and that will ultimately damage our nation even more.......we need more congresspeople and senators to step up and call for his impeachment and removal from office.......many possibilities.....dereliction of duty, failure to defend the constitution as he swore to do, treason, war crimes.........obama is an ass and his supporters are deeply delusional and naive....unfortunately, things will get worse in our nation before they improve if they ever do....obama is poison....
I'd point out that one conservative says "The Great Recession ended in June 2009" while the other says "things will get worse in our nation before they improve if they ever do." Conservatives do not have coherent arguments.
slodon - I like the image of WC Fields. What Obama did in JAnuary of 2009 was the famous bail out of GM and Chrylser (a $25 billion expenditure). In February of 2009 Obama got the stimulus signed. He also added to the TARP program significantly, spending a total of $266 billion in that year (while he hadn't spent it all by July, he had the money on track, and business knew that they could count on it).
But please consider - I am saying that Obama took this massive action in Janaury and February of 2009, and it had the consequence of bottoming out things such as the DJIA in March, the GDP shrinkage in July, and unemployment in December. Conservatives, on the other hand, are saying everything that happened after Obama was sworn in on January 20th or so, is immediately Obama's fault. You can fault me for saying that I give Obama too much credit for the 1-year or so to turnaround, but you are being inconsistent with the conservatives who claim Obama took too long to turn things around, and so should be blamed for all the bad data of 2009.
Just like everything that happened when Bush was in office is his fault. Sucks that the "buck stops here".
Our wonderful Federal Reserve and their insane policies of the last 4 years have done more to keep this economy from taking off than anything Obama or congress has done to move it along.
Slo - what has Obama done in 4 years?? SPEND, SPEND SPEND.
Confused Voter:
He has PAID our bills, PAID our bills, PAID our bills.
You know, the bills run up on the credit card, run up on the credit card, run up on the credit card by the repubs, the repubs, the repubs.
"what has Obama done in 4 years?? SPEND, SPEND SPEND."
http://www.forbes.com/sites/rickungar/2012/05/24/who-is-the-smallest-government-spender-since-eisenhower-would-you-believe-its-barack-obama/
thank god for those repubs trying to slash spending right charlie? i do.
Number of Democratic governors
Then: 28 (2009)
Now: 19 (2013)
This is what should disturb the Dem party the most. With more states pushing back against federal laws/regulations it's not good news for the Dems when state legislatures are turning more conservative every year.
The rest of the nation takes a look at the failed policies of liberal states such as California and says "no thank you".
libs have brought california to the edge of utter ruin...they have already ruined detroit and the once great state of michigan....
Please note - your propaganda is out of date. California kicked out its Republican governor, and elected super-majorities of Democrats to both houses. California raised taxes and held spending constant. It is now running a surplus. Far from being a "failed state," it is the model for the nation for common sense solutions to deficits.
And Michigan is being run by Republicans doing lots of bizarre and anti-Democratic things, like suspending city governments and placing "city managers" to run things like little dictators. Are you aware that Michigan had major anti-state government demonstrations last month?
wow what world do you live in?...have you been to detroit lately??>.......a shining monument to liberal lunacy...
noncoms- really? come on now,really? propoganda? his stats ARE acurate,less dems=more progress.
with luck we won't have to tolerate four more years of this ass of a president.........impeach him and force him to resign publicly.......
It is absolutely bizarre the world that conservatives live in!
you mean the world of reality?.......it must seem really odd to you loony libs...
Please provide a (sane) reason for impeachment proceedings. This ought to be good.
As far as the article goes. It's just numbers and we all know that we can make numbers into whatever we want them to be. Yes my portfolio is stronger again and Corporate America is thriving, but they are not hiring. When they cut the fat in the depth of the recession they discovered that they didn't really need the people laid off. They got more productivity from less people. Good for them and their stockholders. After a couple of months of reading this vine I've noticed that conservatives and liberals are quick to deflect blame on the other but liberals always bring up race first. You can't dislike the President because he's done a poor job it's because he's black. I like to think of President Obama as the matador president. He loves to wave his cape at the problems attacking him but he doesn't really accomplish much. But most important to him is that the fans in the stands love him. As long as he can make his base believe that the reason he hasn't produced is because the conservatives are obstructionists he wins and his base has a new definition for obstruction=racism It must work for the libs because then they don't need to think or judge fairly.
Businesses have changed their models. Where they used to have redundancy to avoid a single point of failure (employee dies or quits), they now depend on employees working themselves to death in sheer joy at having a job. Employers now have employees on call 24/7 via bluetooth and laptops. We have managers that go on vacation with their laptops and schedule meetings via netmeeting (the wives and kids love this) so they can present updated graphs made the night before in the hotel lobby. Isn't that great?
And they also provide help desk services to help you do your job better - if you speak Chinese or can understand their broken English. Isn't that great?
CEO's make millions in salaries and bonus's by firing employees and making the remaining employees work themselves to death (see first paragraph, above). The Walton's accumulative worth is over $100 billion but they have mostly part-time employees they pay $8 an hour for 30 hour weeks and to whom they provide no benefits forcing them to have more than one job (all without benefits). Isn't that great?
Businesses have changed their model from being people oriented (because people are important) to being business oriented (because owners, CEOs, and shareholders are the only things that matter). This makes a much lower percentage of us participants in the American Dream, we have become the victims.
Bottom Line: Obama LIED as Usual, due to the fact nothing was accomplished on his watch per Obamas speeches that he was going to reduce unemployment, decrease the deficit by half and so forth and more Lies. Obama is a FAILURE by his own words as a Senator and as a president. He has nothing to show for nothing. He must be replaced by anyone. No one can do any worse, including a child! I guess America will see another 4 years of vacationing , golf and more Americans being killed, on Obamas watch. The buck doesn't stop with Barry, but with everyone other than the liberals!
A lie is a promise that was made but never attempted. Obama tried to accomplish all of his promises, but was stymied by TPRepubs that promised to make Obama a one term president. Or did they lie too?
bleary- they all lie period.
Another day of dumb a$$ republican dribble. The stupidity in this country is astounding?
Yep Aston - look in the mirror and you will see stupidity!
Are you standing in front of Aston?
Aston-2328867
The idiot who suggests that the country is more polarized than ever before neeed to look no further than John McCain( stiil bitter from 2008) and the rest of the right wing bigots like Lindsey Graham who cant stand the fact that this African American in particular has shown more leadership and guts than they ever would. People who vote for the likes of McCain and Graham are obviously intellectually deficient when it comes to the real issues otherwise they would recognize just how good a President Obama really is !!! Ignorance is bliss for some people apparebtly !!!
This article is 8 hours old and only has 209 comments. Guess you Dems can't defend the mediocre job your president has done so far.
We're at work.
we're at work,posting when we should be working.haha
when obama was first elected people wondered if he was a liar, a distorter, and a divider.....after the first four years anyone with a brain can see that he is indeed a liar, a distorter, and a divider.....congresspeople and senators!!!.....stand up and do what is right for our nation for once.....impeach the ass obama and force him to pubicly resign.....
Please provide a sane, valid, reason to impeach him. This ought to be good.
The male bovine excrement that spews from the oral orifices of those of your ilk truly amaze me. Blah, blah, he's going to take our guns, blah, blah, ad nauseum.
If the GOP, Tea Baggers, Haters, et al would respect the people of our country, they would stop the disrespect and vulgar assault on our President - and stand with him for the good of our country's recovery.
"mcpaddywack" - clearly you are a sad, sorry, pitiful soul who cares not one whit about the good of our country and its people. It appears you - and those of your ilk - will sacrifice the country to be angry and bitter for no good reason.
Hatred is a disease. In you, I fear, the disease is terminal. What a pity!
Post-Script: the "division" of the country has absolutely come from the ultra-Right Wing extremist faction of our country. This is an unarguable truth.
You are wrong
all the Obamanites are just ignoring this article showing how mediocre to bad Obama has done......blinders on.....like true liberals....forward!
Naw - once the ignorant begin posting too much we bail out to avoid all the bullsh!t.
Hussein's America-Now. HIGHER Gas Prices. HIGHER Ultility Prices. HIGHER Food Prices. HIGHER Health Care Costs. HIGHER Tuition. HIGHER Taxes. HIGHER Debt. HIGHER Unemployment. MORE People on Food Stamps. Pathetic FAILURE! Then and Now! Four More Years of this Fool-Let's Hope Not.