It's Time to Choose, America

It's time to choose, America.  Which road do you want America to travel down?  We have the road we're currently on, which leads to socialism.  You say, What's wrong with socialism?  It works for other countries, right?  Wrong.  Most countries are like where America is right now, partially socialistic.  They have social programs in place, but they don't force the issue.  Ever wonder why Canadians come to America for health care?  It's because it takes so long to get what you need done in Canada.  Pretty soon, even Canadians won't be able to get health care in America.

I wanted to compare a few statistics that are specific, because everyone keeps saying they're better off than 4 years ago.  I guess you'd have to be blind to think that way, or else you're ready to totally depend on government for your every need.  First, let's look at unemployment:

Year	Jan	Feb	Mar	Apr	May	Jun	Jul	Aug	Sep	Oct	Nov	Dec	Annual
2002	5.7	5.7	5.7	5.9	5.8	5.8	5.8	5.7	5.7	5.7	5.9	6.0
2003	5.8	5.9	5.9	6.0	6.1	6.3	6.2	6.1	6.1	6.0	5.8	5.7
2004	5.7	5.6	5.8	5.6	5.6	5.6	5.5	5.4	5.4	5.5	5.4	5.4
2005	5.3	5.4	5.2	5.2	5.1	5.0	5.0	4.9	5.0	5.0	5.0	4.9
2006	4.7	4.8	4.7	4.7	4.6	4.6	4.7	4.7	4.5	4.4	4.5	4.4
2007	4.6	4.5	4.4	4.5	4.4	4.6	4.7	4.6	4.7	4.7	4.7	5.0
2008	5.0	4.9	5.1	5.0	5.4	5.6	5.8	6.1	6.1	6.5	6.8	7.3
2009	7.8	8.3	8.7	8.9	9.4	9.5	9.5	9.6	9.8	10.0	9.9	9.9
2010	9.7	9.8	9.8	9.9	9.6	9.4	9.5	9.6	9.5	9.5	9.8	9.4
2011	9.1	9.0	8.9	9.0	9.0	9.1	9.1	9.1	9.0	8.9	8.7	8.5
2012	8.3	8.3	8.2	8.1	8.2	8.2	8.3

This is directly from the Bureau of Labor Statistics.  The Democrats love to say that unemployment was already up by the time that Obama took office, that he inherited a bad situation.  Correct me if I'm wrong, but didn't he take office in January, 2009?  It went up between December, 2008 and January, 2009.  When then Senator Barack Obama announced his candidacy, in February of 2007, unemployment was 4.5%.  It bounced around the 4% mark for several months as we "got to know the Presidential candidate."  I remember it was about the middle of 2008 when I personally realized he was a Marxist/Communist/Socialist.  That's apparently when businesses realized it too.  They saw the writing on the wall and started down sizing.  Perhaps they knew the masses would fall for his rhetoric.  The numbers started climbing.  Remember the push to pass TARP, as WE HAVE TO DO IT RIGHT NOW!  President Obama said that unemployment might get as high as (gasp) 8% if we didn't do something.  As you can see from the chart, it reached 10% even with TARP. 

First let's look at how they determine unemployment numbers.  You do realize that as of July, 2012 there were more than 8.3% of the population actually out of work, don't you?  They don't count those who have had their unemployment insurance run out.  They don't count those who have been looking for work and have stopped. According to this article, the real unemployment number for March, 2012 would have been 22.3%.  They used a different way of measuring unemployment up until 1994.  Guess who was President in 1994 when they changed how they calculate unemployment?  Bill Clinton.  Hmmm.

Let's take a look at another thing that hits closer to home for most of us: gasoline prices.  I found this chart on line as well.

It looks pretty rocky right around the time that Obama announced his candidacy.  I have to admit, it looks pretty rocky right about the time Bush took office for the second time.  That really low spike (around $1.60 a gallon) is when Bush released the reserves.  and it never came back down again.


Now let's look at something even closer to home: Median Household Incomes:

Year

No. of Households

Nominal $

Inflation Adjusted $

2010

118,682,000

$47,022

$49,445

2009

117,538,000

$47,361

$50,599

2008

117,181,000

$47,832

$50,939

2007

116,783,000

$47,752

$52,823

2006

116,011,000

$45,817

$52,124

2005

114,384,000

$44,082

$51,739

2004

113,343,000

$42,167

$51,174

2003

112,000,000

$41,185

$51,353

2002

111,278,000

$40,347

$51,398

2001

109,297,000

$40,148

$52,005

2000

108,209,000

$39,926

$53,164

This chart I only used the data from 2000 until 2010 (the highest it goes).  What disturbs me the most about this chart is the last column.  It has to be adjusted for inflation.  It's like the gasoline prices, if you don't adjust it for the fact that the government tried to fix the problem by making your dollar actually worth about 60 cents, it isn't factual.  So, on average, we've lost about $3700 in income.  Another thing to take away from this chart is that it bounced around the same area between 2000 and 2007.  Once again, that was when then Senator Obama announced his bid for the presidency.  businesses went, "Oh Crap! He's gonna win, we better scale back."  I would say the Democratic party is more interested in the first column...how many households there are.  With their policy of pro-abortion and gay agenda, we should see that number fall.

And finally, something that usually makes people's eyes gloss over: National Debt.  This web page also includes the current running debt clock.

When Obama took office, the national debt was at about 11 Trillion.  Yes, that's Trillion.  As an update, the debt clock went over 16 trillion during the Democrat National convention. As best as I can tell, in 2007 the debt was about 8.5 Trillion.  In 2006, the Democrats took control of the House and the Senate.  That means the Democrats have doubled the national debt since they've been in office.

The problem is not growth, it's spending.  The Democrats have not had a budget for 3 and a half years, and they voted down President Obama's budget 99-0.  I ask you this:  If you ran your household with no budget and unlimited ability to borrow, how would it look on your credit?