Give President Obama his due: credit for building strong economy
Back about eight years ago, the U.S. was losing 900,000 jobs per month. The auto industry was in collapse. The financial system was in deep distress. The economy was in a significant recession; stock was falling rapidly.
Today, the auto industry is in near record production, with 17 million cars produced per year. The stock market has nearly tripled -- the Dow Jones Industrial Average has more than doubled under Obama's presidency, among the best stock market performances under any president.
Over the past 72 months, 14.3 million jobs have been created. The number of people filing jobless claims hit a 42-year low last year.
Unemployment is down to 4.9 percent, which was Mitt Romney's goal, should he have been elected. But he wasn't; Barack Obama was.
So, where's the applause for these achievements? Despite all the above, certain biased political pundits persist in claiming the U.S. economy has "failed." Good grief, wake up and smell the coffee, people.
There is still work to do, but one million more people now have health care. Cuba has been opened. There's a deal with Iran.
All this was accomplished by a half-black/half-white man, trussed up tight as a Christmas turkey by a negative Congress determined to keep this president from having any accomplishments to his credit. Why? Because he's half-black!
Life in the United States of America is not terrible -- by most standards, it is simply terrific. Except for the racism, of course.
This year the U.S. economy will grow much faster than the Eurozone and three times faster than Japan's. Despite negative "news" to the contrary, the United States today is among the best performing economies of the world.
Facts are hard to argue with; telling lies is so much more fun. Let's see some facts in newspapers and on television for a change.
C.D. Parker
Bradenton
This story was originally published March 23, 2016 at 12:00 AM with the headline "Give President Obama his due: credit for building strong economy ."