Through the first 25 quarters of Mr. Obama's recovery, GDP
growth has averaged 2.2 percent, whereas during the comparable
period for Reagan, GDP advanced at a 4.6 percent annual pace.
And whereas Reagan's social safety net assisted the unemployed,
Mr. Obama's pays the unemployed to be idle.
The 7 million men between the ages of 25 and 54 who are neither
employed nor are looking for work are rewarded with food stamps,
the earned income tax credit if their spouse is a low-income
worker and federal health care subsidies — and even virtually
free health care through Medicaid in many states.
For folks refusing to do anything productive with their lives,
Mr. Obama is offering an even more attractive benefit — free
money in the form of a government pension.
Despite the fact that Americans are living healthier and longer
lives and work is generally less physically challenging, the
percentage of adults ages 16 to 64 certified as permanently
incapable of working by the Social Security Disability Insurance
program now stands at 5.1 percent — about double the figure in
Reagan's day.
A broken appeals system offers a decided advantage to those
crafty applicants who hire a lawyer — a situation the Obama
administration refuses to fix.
For hard working families, the results are predictable — annual
family incomes have declined about $1,650 during the Obama
years, whereas they increased $3,900 during Reagan's tenure.
Hillary is offering Americans more of the same—higher taxes to
pay for more government giveaways and more micromanagement in
the form of regulation of private sector decisions on wages.
For the indolent, this is the Second Age of Pericles, but for
those who toil for their daily bread, Hillary’s pronouncements
that Americans would be better off doubling down on Obama’s
economic policies doesn’t bear the test of facts.
Peter Morici is an economist and business professor
at the University of Maryland, and a national columnist. He
tweets @pmorici1
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