President Obama tells Colorado Springs TV station KKTV that he gives himself an “incomplete” grade when it comes to the economy.
The president has had 3 ½ years to fix the economy he inherited, yet unemployment has remained stuck above 8 percent. Obama previously said the same thing in interviews with CBS in Aug. 2010 and Oct. 2011.
By contrast, when President Reagan was in office in Dec. 1982 unemployment rocketed up to 10.9, yet by Nov. 1984 it had fallen to 7.4 percent, below where unemployment was when Obama took office.
A similar situation happened during Bill Clinton’s first term when unemployment was at 7.3 percent when he took office in Jan. 1993. Yet four years later unemployment was at 5.3 percent when he started his second term.
For the President to say that it takes more than four years to bring the economy back flies in the face of historical precedent. The Reagan recession added high inflation and high interest rates, neither of which consumers have had to cope with during the Obama years, yet it was tamed in under four years.
As Robert Gibbs said in July during an appearance on ABC’s This Week, the “buck stops” with the president on the economy.
If prior presidents could bring down the high unemployment rate during their first terms, why not Obama?
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SAXmMQgIypY&w=420&h=315]
