The chart shows the unemployment rate during the Reagan and Obama Presidencies. Reagan had a much worse unemployment crisis than Obama, with unemployment reaching nearly 11% in November of 1982. However Reagan's policies succeeded in jump starting a vigorous economic recovery, and did so in record short time, as the graph shows.
What were the policies that achieved this? 1) drastic tax cuts (from 70% to 28%), 2) tax reform, 3) reining in stultifying federal deregulation and massive de-regulation, 4) holding the line on spending, and 4) firing of thousands of air traffic controllers without giving in to union demands. Reagan also agreed to a budget package with Democrats (which he later regretted) calling for $2 of spending cuts for every $1 of tax increase. However the Democrats reneged on the deal, and the spending cuts never occurred.
By contrast with Reagan, unemployment under Obama never got worse than 10.1%, and never as bad as under Reagan. Obama complains constantly that he inherited the worst economy since the Great Depression. But it was not the worst on unemployment. And under Obama's policies of mis-directed spending (Stimulus Package), cutting back drilling, wasting money on failing green projects, job killing over-regulation, a hostile attitude towards business, Dodd Frank, Volker Rule, Buffett Rule, Cash for Clunkers, HARP, TARP, and other failures, unemployment has lasted longer than at anytime since the great depression.
Obama policies have hurt the economic recovery and have hurt unemployment. The chart clearly shows the fact: Reagan's unemployment problem was worse than Obama's, but Reagan brought unemployment back much more quickly. Unemployment under Obama is recovering much more slowly than any other recession since 1945. Obama's policies have made the recovery slower and longer.
No comments:
Post a Comment