Are You Better Off than You Were Four Years Ago?

Republicans are employing this popular political refrain to defeat President Barack Obama in November. But you would have to have been asleep under some rock for the past four years not to realize that collectively, as a country, we are better off now than four years ago.

Four years ago, our financial system was in collapse, and we were in economic freefall. During the Bush Administration, the Dow plunged from a high of 1400 to below 6500 taking with it most of America’s savings.  The housing market bubble broke, along with most middle-class Americans’ wealth.  We were looking down the canyon of a huge abyss and a second Great Depression.  

I will never forget that the Republican Treasury Secretary dropped to his knees and begged the Speaker of the House, Nancy Pelosi, to sign on to the TARP  program. As abhorrent as it was to those of us who responsibly kept our own economic house in order, we had to support this measure to save all our homes and the world-wide economy.  

All the hope and change that Obama talked about during his campaign seemed impossible to ever fulfill, as he had to immediately direct his energies to the life-support of our economy. We were hemorrhaging jobs! People were losing their homes and their ability to feed their families. 

The stimulus package sent aid to the states to prevent millions of public sector job losses. It employed the devastated construction industry to address infrastructure needs. It provided unemployment insurance funds to the unemployed, and tax-breaks to the middle class and small businesses. We went from losing 800,000 jobs a month to creating 4.5 million. (See the chart on this blog.) Obama’s biggest critics lament that he couldn’t repair it all in four years. 

Are you kidding?  It took over a decade and a World War to get us out of the Great Depression!! 

The Dow is now over 1300, fortifying many retirement and savings accounts of average Americans. Our savings and investment accounts are much better off! 

Amazingly enough, President Obama got a lot accomplished in his first term in the midst of the worst financial crisis in 80 years. This is all in the face of a fervent
obstructionist rival party who rejected their own past ideas and policies (many
of which Obama incorporated into his own policies for the sake of bi-partisanship) in order to make President Obama, as Senate Minority leader’s famously stated, “A one-term president.” 

The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act also included major investments in the things on which President Obama campaigned to build a reliable foundation for long-term growth. These included investments in education, clean energy, science research and development, the energy grid, etc... 

He saved GM and Chrysler and 1.5 million jobs in the process and GM is once again the major automobile maker in the world. Manufacturing is making a come-back in America and our manufacturing sector is much better off! 

Wall Street Reform and the Consumer Protection Act were passed to help prevent a reoccurrence of the abuses that got us into this mess in the first place. The average American, traditionally at the mercy of unbridled greed of  unchecked capitalism, is much better off! 

After 100-years of failed attempts, health care reform was passed. Not as a socialist plan, as Obama’s critics claim (ironically, most progressives would have preferred a one-payer system!) but as a market plan with restrictions on private insurers in exchange for expanding coverage to another 32 million Americans.  The trade-off helps everyone. No longer can Americans lose insurance when they get sick, or be denied care due to pre-existing conditions. Young adults are covered under their parents’ plans until the age of 26. And all insurance plans must provide basic preventative care so people can stay healthier longer. And yes, he fortified Medicare for eight more years while giving seniors additional drug prescription coverage. In healthcare, we are much, much better off! 

 Overall, the President’s reason to tackle healthcare was twofold—first he believed, as a son who watched his mother fight with insurance companies on her deathbed, that affordable healthcare was a fundamental right for everyone. Second, if we didn’t begin to control the runaway costs of this broken system, it would bankrupt us.

As front and center as the economy is in today’s election, it was just eight years ago that the major question was “Which Candidate can keep you safe?”  George Bush ran that refrain to his second term in office. 

In his first term, Barack Obama not only kept us safe, he ended the unnecessary and cash-sucking war in Iraq. He is winding down the nation’s longest war in its history, Afghanistan. And, oh yes, he ordered the risky mission that killed Osama Bin Laden while everyday he further degrades the ranks of Al-Qaida-- the real assassins of 9/11.  And he dramatically improved America’s relations with our world neighbors. Regarding our citizens’ safety and security, we are much better off! 

Patience has not been a strong virtue in this instant-gratification American culture. However, President Obama has worked very hard and has had much success. He needs a little more time and a lot more cooperation from the other side to fully return to the prosperity that Americans once enjoyed. But, there can be no denying, we are much better off since Barack Obama became President.