By Nancy Thorner –
How could it be that according to a new Gallup polling, President Obama’s approval rating is at its highest in over a year! This is less than two months after the November mid-term election when President Obama and the Democratic Party suffered a shellacking by Republicans over policies that did not set well with many voters.
The polling average from Dec. 27-29 has Obama’s approval at 48 percent, the highest it has been since August 2013. With Obama’s disapproval also at 48 percent, this marks the first time Obama’s disapproval has not been higher than his approval rate since September of 2013.
Gallup does point out that Obama’s action on immigration could be a factor in his rising approval standing. The president’s approval rate among Hispanics rose by 12 percentage points after his announcement of last month. Obama’s Cuba policy could also have led to Obama’s increased popularity.
Positive Obama commentaries for 2014
Jason Easley takes note of Obama’s approval ratings reaching a 20-month high in his article of Friday, December 26th, in which credit is given to a record decline in gas prices and an economy that has experienced its best quarter of growth since 2003.
In yet another year-end commentary of how this nation and its citizens are faring at the dawn of a new year, David Igwe, a contributor to bvinews.com, paints the following rosy picture of this nation:
The present US economic success is not chance. Post the Recession of 2007-09 the Feds and the Obama administration adopted a policy of economic stimulus.
From Quantitative easing and the keeping of bank base rates as low as 0%, to protecting public sector jobs, and adopting policy to better the lives of the poor and middle class, the US government has engineered the present boom.
The US middle class is feeling better these days. It is spending once more. Middle class demand is at the root of the present US economic resurgence. The poor and middle class are hopeful about the future.
Blacks, minorities, single women, Latinos, north eastern whites, and white liberals, feel justified in their backing of a liberal agenda and President Barack Obama. There is new hope manifested in growing consumer confidence and rising demand.
The present economic boom in the US is the result of the Obama Stimulus. It is also the result of a reduction in personal debt that has the US consumer feeling increasingly better off.
Strong US economic growth will become Barack Obama’s greatest legacy if sustained until 2016. It will pave the way for Democratic success in the 2016 US Presidential Elections.
Obama’s ‘breakthrough year for America”
During President Obama’s final news conference of 2014 before heading to off to Hawaii with his family vacation on Friday, Dec. 19, Obama called 2014 “a breakthrough year for America.” This despite the fits and starts that occurred during the past 12 months. Obama focused on achievements on the economy and in other areas, as well as the prospect of compromise with his political foes who are taking control of Congress. Obama declared himself energized. Despite the November midterm elections that brought crushing loses to his party, he ticked off the year’s improvement citing lower unemployment, a rising number of Americans covered by health insurance and a historic diplomatic opening with Cuba. .
But are the 2014 accomplishments President Obama touted and bragged about fact or fiction? Among them:
Best Job Growth since Clinton years: The percentage of the population working full time has never been lower except in the great depression. The jobs “created” are largely part-time jobs made necessary as employers try to stay under the hours worked requirements of Obama care. Creating two part time jobs is cheaper for an employer than one full time job. Most of the full time jobs created are government jobs supported by the astronomical growth in our national debt. The “jobless rate” is just the number a people actively seeking jobs. Obama has made welfare combined with other entitlement programs so abundant that many simply have stopped seeking employment where they would actually have to WORK to get the same benefits.
In Illinois the unemployment rate fell to 6.4 percent in November. Even so for the year Illinois ranked last in the Midwest and 47th nationally for payroll-jobs growth rate, according to the CBO.
Gas Heading to $2 a gallon: The cost of oil has declined as a direct result of the increased production from fracking and improved drilling techniques IN SPITE of Obama’s best efforts to reduce oil production in this country; no drilling allowed on federal lands; endless delays in licensing pipeline developments (NOT just the Keystone project); ridiculous environmental regulations; taxes and Obama care burdens.
DOW Jones 18000: The stock market has done well because: 1) Interest rates have been kept extremely artificially low to support the economy, so there is nowhere else to invest your money to get any rate of return; 2) Companies have gotten ever more efficient in reducing the costs of production (as in human evolution, adversity increases efficiency); 3) massive deficit spending has pumped trillions of $ into the market at the expense of future generations; 4) The DOW is just now getting back to previous levels! This has been by far the slowest recovery our economy has ever experienced; and 5) The socialist governments in Europe have driven those economies into bankruptcy (like the Democrats here are doing to our economy through massive deficit spending), so no one wants to invest in the European stock markets. They invest instead in ours (China is buying America through massive purchases of our stock).
Deficit Slashed: A blatant lie! The national debt has risen to over $18 trillion and increasing by $6 billion a day‼ It was under $6 trillion when Bush left office. Obama has increased it more than all of the previous presidents combined‼ The deficit spending remains outrageously high and any “reduction” is just a slightly less outrageous shortfall than last year, forced on the Democrats by the Republican Congress.
GDP growth at 4%: The economy has been showing signs of strength, including the news last week that the economy grew at 5 percent, its highest level in 11 years, from July to September, but this is by far the lowest rate of recovery from any past recession we have experienced in this country. Other recoveries have supported over twice that increase. Our VERY slow 6 year recovery has been due largely to Obama’s oppressive taxes/regulations/health care law and market distortion to placate interest groups (environmentalists, labor unions, etc.).
Rising number of Americans covered by health insurance: Data released Thursday, December 18 from the National Center for Health Statistic’ National Health Interview Survey found that 11.3 % of American were without coverage in the second quarter of 2014, down from 12.1 % in the first quarter. This represents the lowest levels ever recorded across the 50 years of data keeping. The White House, however, has hyped its year-end enrollment numbers and hid Obamacare imposed cancellations during 2014. Has 2014 really been a good one for victims of Obamacare? Although it might be good for many who enroll in Obamacare — nearly 90% of exchange enrollees receive public subsidies in order to pay their premiums, resulting in government redistributing the burden of footing the bill to taxpayers — more and more doctors are refusing Obamacare patients.
Furthermore, Obama’s medical-device tax has forced companies to cut back on research and development and has resulted in layoffs of at least 33,000 workers over the year. In order not to anger voters before the mid-terms elections Obama bureaucrats delayed payment deadlines, high-risk policy cancellations, and onerous meaningful use mandates on health providers grappling with Obamacare’s disastrous top-down electronic medical records rules. These surprises will come in 2015. A bright spot: 16 senators who voted for the federal health care takeover either failed to win re-election or declined to run for re-election. It is estimated that over the next decade Obamacare will cost taxpayers $2 trillion or more than $8,000 per household per year in indirect cost to the economy.
Historic diplomatic opening with Cuba: In the aftermath of President Obama ordering a restoration of full diplomatic relations with Cuba on Wednesday, December 17, it is fallacy to believe that Cuba will reform and the Castro brothers will suddenly unclench their fists, just because an American president opens his hands and declares this to be so. Regarding Cuba, it is close to complete economic meltdown. It can no longer rely on Russia because it has its own economic problems. Cuba had been relying on Venezuela providing oil to just survive, but Venezuela’s economy is suffering due to the decrease in oil prices.
Even if money from tourists and exported goods should reach Cuba, the Castro brothers and their friends will become richer and more powerful while the Cuban workers would continue to be paid in cheap pesos. Cuba has been for years able to trade freely with every other country in the world. In addition, the USA trades with Cuba, but on a limited basis, but have any positive changes taken place? At the end of December the Cuban government chose to celebration the restored diplomatic relations with the U.S. by cracking down on free speech demonstrators. At least three leading dissidents were detained by the Cuban police ahead of a planned free-speech demonstration in the Plaza de la Revolución. Former Ambassador to the UN John Bolton said on the Fox News Channel on Wednesday that Obama’s moves on Cuba constitute “appeasement” and are a “very, very bad signal of weakness and lack of resolve by the president of the United States.”
Looking Ahead to the 114th Congress
Although Obama has been a disaster on all fronts during 2014, with Obama determined to act when he sees a big problem within his lawful authority to do so — he also has the power of the pen — and with Republicans out to prove they can govern with majorities in both Houses of Congress, the resulting divided government over the next two years will most likely be filled with political unrest and maneuvering for power and votes by both parties. In that the mainstream media has pretty much protected Obama from any blame over either his policies or his Executive Orders since first elected in 2008, it is not unreasonable to believe that the press will continue to shield Obama and promote his progressive policies.
As noted previously, only six weeks after Republicans triumphed over Democrats during the mid-term elections, Obama’s popularity had climbed to 48%, the highest it had been since August, 2013. Had the media called into question and evaluated the accomplishments noted by Obama at his final 2014 news conference, it could have easily been determined that Obama’s boastfulness was mostly fiction which many Americans then perceived as fact.
How much more fantasy (spin) can this nation withstand if it is to survive? Neither Republicans nor Democrats have the gumption to be honest with the American people about the almost insurmountable problems facing this nation. Nothing positive can happen unless politicians realize the rapid path of this nation toward Socialism, and then set out to do the tough stuff that is required to right this nation. This requires an educated citizenry, many of whom have grown comfortable living in a nanny state.
Will Republicans meet the challenge in the 114th Congress. I hope so, but Republican leaders haven’t shown any gumption in the past. But what about the media? Unfortunately most of the media leans to the left, having been trained at universities and colleges (i.e., Columbia and Northwestern) that are progressive in nature and where the majority of professors are liberals.
It remains the task of millions of concerned citizens to make their voice heard through letter-writing and contacting their elected representatives to demand that our Constitution is honored and that freedom is not replaced by big government control of our lives.