Marissa Moyer ’12
President Obama promised Americans citizens change in his campaign and election, but so far his “change” has negatively impacted our economy and U.S. citizens. Forbes Magazine declares that, economically, “Obama is the worst president of the past 60 years.” According to World Bank data, in his first two years of presidency, the U.S. annual GDP growth dropped to -2.7 percent as soon as his stimulus package was initiated. Obama’s unwavering trust in Keynesian economics ensures a rising unemployment rate in the United States. In 2009, Obama promised that the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) would help “save and create” jobs and unemployment would only peak at 8.5 percent. Now, two years later, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics states the unemployment rate to be 9.1 percent.
The House Bill that Obama and House Democrats passed “consisted roughly of two-thirds spending and one-third tax cuts”, according to the New York Times, and assisted only a small percent of Americans who were unemployed. However, the economic recovery package, which was originally an $825 billion plan, was decreased by $6 billion when Democrats were forced to “drop several provisions that Republicans had singled out for derision”, which included funds to refurbish the Jefferson Memorial and for family planning programs.
Obama once said, “The true engine of economic growth will always be companies like Solyndra,” regarding the solar energy company to which the government loaned $528 million. Once the company declared bankruptcy in early September, the House Energy and Commerce Subcommittee launched a full-blown investigation on how and why the loan was approved in the first place. “Many of us think he was trying to get the money out the door perhaps for political reasons, and in the end taxpayers lost over half a billion dollars,” said Rep. Cliff Stearns, chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations. Whether the loan was corrupt or honest, $528 million came out of taxpayers’ wallets. Additionally, the administration structured the loan to Solyndra so that private investors got paid back before U.S. taxpayers did.
Obama declares that he is bipartisan, yet he is one of the most one-sided presidents America has seen in years. The President and his administration openly oppose any and all Republican or conservative thought. Obama passed the healthcare reform despite the resistance and loud objections of each Republican in Congress. As a result of Obamacare, health insurance rates have spiked by 9 percent (as of September 27, 2011), according to a study by the Kaiser Family Foundation and the Health Research and Educational Fund. The President and the Democratic majority of the Congress completely shut out Republicans until the election of Scott Brown, and Obama’s administration makes attempts to demonize Republicans and Tea Party members. Vice President Joe Biden even went as far as to accuse Tea Partiers of “acting like terrorists.”
All in all, Obama and his administration have had a widespread negative effect on not only our government, but America as well. The only way to escape is to not re-elect him. This doesn’t sound like a change we can believe in. Ronald Reagan once said, “Government exists to protect us from each other. Where government has gone beyond its limits is in deciding to protect us from ourselves.”