Just over two years ago, Barack Obama was inaugurated as president of the United States. Are you better off today than you were two years ago? Numbers don't lie, and here are the data on the impact he has had on the lives of Americans:
| Jan 2009 | TODAY | % | Source | |
| Avg. retail $/gal gas in U.S. | $1.83 | $3.10 | 69.6% | 1 |
| Crude Oil, Euro. Brent (brl) | $43.48 | $99.02 | 127.7 | 2 |
| Crude Oil, W.Tx Inter(brl) | $38.74 | $91.38 | 135.9 | 2 |
| Gold, London (/troy oz) | $853.25 | $1369.5 | 60.5 | 2 |
| Corn, #2, Centr. IL | $3.56 | $6.33 | 78.1 | 2 |
| Soybean, #1 Yel, IL | $9.66 | $13.75 | 42.3 | 2 |
| Surgar, can, raw, world, lb. fob | $13.37 | $35.39 | 164.7 | 2 |
| Unempl. rate, non-farm, overall | 7.6% | 9.4% | 23.7 | 3 |
| Unempl. rate, blacks | 12.6% | 15.8% | 25.4% | 3 |
| # of unemp | 11,616,000 | 14,485,000 | 24.7 | 3 |
| # fed. emply, ex. military (curr=12/10 prelim) | 2,779000 | 2,840,000 | 2.2 | 3 |
| Real med. household income (08vs09) | $50,112 | $49,777 | -0.7 | 4 |
| # food stamp recipients (curr=10/10) | 31,983,716 | 43,200,878 | 24.7 | 5 |
| # unemply benefit recip(curr=12/10) | 7,526,598 | 9,193,838 | 22.2 | 6 |
| #long term unemplyd | 2,6000,000 | 6,400,000 | 146.2 | 3 |
| poverty rate, indivds (08v09) | 13.2% | 14.3% | 8.3 | 4 |
| People in poverty U.S.(08vs09) | 39,800,000 | 43,600,000 | 9.5 | 4 |
| U.S. rank in economic freedom, world rank | 5 | 9 | n/a | 10 |
| Present Situation Index (curr =12/10) | 29.9 | 23.5 | -21.4 | 11 |
| Failed banks(curr=2010+2011 to date) | 140 | 164 | 17.1 | 12 |
| US $$ vs. Japanese Yen ex.rate | 89.76 | 82.03 | -8.6 | 2 |
| US money supply, M1, in billions (curr=12/10 prelim) | 1,575.1 | 1,865.7 | 18.4 | 13 |
| US money supply, M1, in billions (curr=12/10 prelim) | 8,310.9 | 8,852.3 | 6.5 | 13 |
| National DEBT, in TRILLIONS | $$10.627 | $$14.052 | 32.2 | 14 |
Just take this last item: In the last two years we have accumulated national debt at a rate more than 27 times as fast as during the rest of our entire nation's history. Over 27 times as fast! Metaphorically, speaking, if you are driving in the right lane doing 65 MPH and a car rockets past you in the left lane 27 times faster . . . it would be doing 1,755 MPH! This is a disaster!
If your house were in these shoes, scaled to your size pocket book…would you be running your life this way? NO. Then why the tarnation are we letting them run the White House (our Nation’s House) this way!?!
Sources:
(1) U.S. Energy Information Administration; (2) Wall Street Journal; (3) Bureau of Labor Statistics; (4) Census Bureau; (5) USDA; (6) U.S. Dept. of Labor; (7) FHFA; (8) Standard & Poor's/Case-Shiller; (9) RealtyTrac; (10) Heritage Foundation and WSJ; (11) The Conference Board; (12) FDIC; (13) Federal Reserve; (14) U.S. Treasury
