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Jewish World Review July 22, 2011 / 20 Tamuz, 5771 How's That ‘Change’ Working out for you? By Greg Crosby
"I'm in this race not just to hold an office, but to gather with you to transform a nation."
"We are five days away from fundamentally transforming the United States of America." And he's been doing his best to live up to that promise ever since.
Attempting to turn the United States into a European-style entitlement state is certainly "change," and a pretty radical change at that. Okay, we're not Belgium yet, but Obamacare is a damn good start in that direction - the first step to socialized medicine. All through the campaign he used the terms "transform" and "change" to describe what he would do if he became president. Since we're only a little over one year away from the next election, this might be a good time to examine just how well those "changes" are going so far. Thanks to Obama's federal spending spree of the last three years, our debt crisis is now at the point where the credit-rating agencies are saying the U.S. is at the brink of losing the AAA rating it has had since 1917. Federal governmental spending, mostly on entitlement programs, is at its highest since World War II. Last week Senator Marco Rubio of Florida said, "Every aspect of life in America today is worse than it was when [President Obama] took over. Unemployment higher. Interest rates higher. The only thing that has gone down in America over the last two years is the value of your home. This president has mismanaged this economy. He has been incompetent in his management of this economy," The old saying is "figures don't lie, so let's take a look at some figures. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the unemployment rate in June 2008 was 5.6%. For June 2011 it was 9.2%. That's definitely change, I must admit. Check out these other stats. All of them from reliable sources as indicated in the ( ) brackets. After almost three years of Obama ... Here's your Change:
Avgerage Retail price/gallon gas in U.S.
Crude oil, European Brent (barrel)
Crude oil, West TX Inter. (barrel)
Gold: London (per troy oz.)
Corn, No.2 yellow, Central IL
Soybeans No. 1 yellow
Sugar, cane, raw, world, lb. Fob
Number of unemployed
Number of fed. Employees
Real median household income
Number of food stamp recipients
Number of unemployment benefit recipients
Number of long-term unemployed
Poverty rate, individuals
People in poverty in U.S.
U.S. Rank in Economic Freedom World Rankings
A PLACE LIKE NO OTHER
Present Situation Index
Failed banks
U.S. Dollar versus Japanese yen exchange rate
U.S. Money supply, M1, in billions
U.S. Money supply, M2, in billions
National debt, in trillions
Those are the stats and I've given you the sources, check them out for yourself. And as Election Day 2012 draws closer, just remember the words that were said in 2008 by the man of the future, the candidate of "change," Barack Obama, who declared to the world that his nomination would mark the moment "when the rise of oceans began to slow and our planet began to heal." Are we healed yet, oh mighty B.O.?
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© 2008, Greg Crosby |
Mitch Albom | |||||||||||||
