Numbers Speak Louder Than Words
Posted: Friday, September 9th, 2011 at 9:33 am
By: SATP
People will often use superlatives without quantification: “he’s the worst” or “she’s the best.” Listeners are often forced to take these statements by faith or challenge the speaker to show the numbers. Exactly what is it that is behind those statements? So it is when we voice alarm that President Obama is bringing down the Nation. So how do we respond when our liberal friends challenge us to back up those statements with facts?
Michael J. Boskin, a professor of economics at Stanford and a senior fellow at the Hoover Institution, recently came to our aid. In his September 8th article published in The Wall Street Journal, Mr. Boskin states that while “the president constantly reminds us that he was dealt a difficult hand…the evidence is overwhelming that he played it poorly. To read his entire article visit the Hoover Institution’s Daily Report.
The Wall Street Journal helpfully summarized the data as follows:
| Records Set on Obama's Watch - Ten reasons to fire Obama | |
|---|---|
| Sources: Standard & Poor’s, Office of Management and Budget, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Morgan Stanley, Joint Committee on Taxation, and the U.S. Census | |
| 1. US sovereign debt downgrade: first in American History | 7. Increase in nonfarm payroll employment (0.5%) since recovery began 26 months ago: slowest job growth 26 months after a severe recession since World War II |
| 2. Federal spending (25% of GDP): highest since World War II | 8. Home ownership rate (59.7%): lowest since 1965 |
| 3. Budget deficit (10 % of GDP): highest since World War II | 9. Percentage of taxpayers paying income tax (49%): lowest in modern era |
| 4. Federal debt (67% of GDP): highest since World War II | 10. Government dependency (47%), defined as the percentage of persons receiving one or more federal benefit payments: highest in American history. |
| 5. Employment (58.1% of population working): lowest since 1983 | |
| 6. Long-term unemployment (45.9%) of total): highest since 1930’s | |
Not a record to be proud of! If any of us had such a record of accomplishments at work, our boss would deservedly fire us. Maybe his bosses should consider.
San Antonio Tea Party
