Former President Obama went to Twitter the other day to claim credit for the current economic upswing that started almost the moment he left office – after eight years of blaming President Bush for the lousy recovery that lasted almost the entire eight years he was in office.
President Trump was not amused. Excerpt:
President Trump didn’t mince words and accused Obama of “trying to take credit” for the Trump economy.
“Did you hear the latest con job? President Obama is now trying to take credit for the Economic Boom taking place under the Trump Administration,” Trump tweeted. “He had the WEAKEST recovery since the Great Depression, despite Zero Fed Rate & MASSIVE quantitative easing. NOW, best jobs numbers ever.”
“Had to rebuild our military, which was totally depleted. Fed Rate UP, taxes and regulations WAY DOWN,” Trump added.
Simply put, Trump is right. There have been eleven recessions since World War II, each of which was followed by a recovery. We did experience an economic recovery under Obama—it just happens it was the worst one. Here are the facts: All jobs lost in post-World War II recessions were recovered after an average of twenty-five months. But, it took seventy-seven months for employment to return to pre-recession levels, making Obama’s recovery the slowest recovery of all of them, and by a wide margin. Obama is also the only president in U.S. history to have never had a single year of 3.0 percent or greater GDP growth.
To be fair, it can’t be easy for President Obama to see his “legacy” being systematically dismantled by the successor that he still can’t quite believe beat out Her Imperial Majesty for that seat at the Resolute Desk. And it can’t be easy to see the current crop of nitwits, harridans, buffoons and nincompoops that are angling for the 2020 Dem nomination.
But if there was ever a President whose accomplishments with phone and pen deserved to be dismantled, it’s Barack Obama.
And the fun part is, it appears plenty of Americans agree with President Trump:
If Obama thinks he can claim credit for the booming economy—and that it will work—he’s got another thing coming. A recent Gallup poll shows that most Americans credit President Trump for the economy.
As I’ve been saying, it’s going to be an interesting election cycle. But then, aren’t they all, these days?
