Fact Check: Are Americans “better off” since Obama took office?

Politipage ^ | 09/02/14 | Jon Fitzpatrick

[nhwingut]

President Obama appeared at a Labor Day event in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, where he told a crowd of union supporters that "American workers and the American economy are better off since I became president."

Since it is widely acknowledged that Americans have given Obama record setting disapproval numbers relative to his handling of the U.S. economy - we decided to fact check this statement.

First let's review how America feels about this statement.

According to the latest Gallup poll, a mere 35% of the country approves of Obama's handling of the economy.

NBC News/Wall St Journal reported the same 35% (with 71% saying country is on wrong track.) CNN reports pretty much the same. As does CBS/NYT.

Also, curiously, the Democrat candidate for governor in Wisconsin, ran and hid, when Obama landed in the Badger State to tout how America is "better off" under his leadership. Which seems kind of odd.

I mean, wouldn't a Democrat candidate, in a blue-tilting state like Wisconsin, want to be seen with the man responsible for making Americans "better off?"

Very strange.

Well. Let's move beyond opinion and perception. And look at the facts. Things that would actually make Americans "better off" such as affordable healthcare, energy, and food. Basically three of the most important expenditures in a family's budget.

Let's start with gas prices.

Gas prices have almost doubled.

The average price of a gallon of gas has increased 96 percent since President Barack Obama first took office in 2009, according to figures from the Energy Information Agency (EIA).

Next up healthcare.

Healthcare costs have skyrocketed.

Health insurance premiums are showing the sharpest increases perhaps ever according to a survey of brokers who sell coverage in the individual and small group market. Morgan Stanley’s healthcare analysts conducted the proprietary survey of 148 brokers. The April survey shows the largest acceleration in small and individual group rates in any of the 12 prior quarterly periods when it has been conducted.

The average increases are in excess of 11% in the small group market and 12% in the individual market. Some state show increases 10 to 50 times that amount. The analysts conclude that the “increases are largely due to changes under the ACA.”

What about food?

Food prices are through the roof.

The price of beef and bacon hit its all-time high in the United States in June, according to data released Tuesday by the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS).

In January 1980, when BLS started tracking the price of these commodities, ground chuck cost $1.82 per pound and bacon cost $1.45 per pound. By this June 2014, ground chuck cost $3.91 per pound and bacon cost $6.11 per pound.

A decade ago, in June 2004, a pound of ground chuck cost $2.49, which means that the commodity has increased by 57 percent since then. Bacon has increased by 78.7 percent from the $3.42 it cost in June 2004 to the $6.11 it costs now.

So the cost of energy, healthcare and food have soared, since Obama became president. Which would sort of make the idea that Americans "are better off since I took office" sound delusional.

But maybe incomes have also soared to sort of even things out.

Um, nope. In fact incomes are actually lower.

For five years, the United States economy has been expanding at a steady clip, the stock market soaring, the headlines filled with talk of recovery. Yet public opinion polling shows most Americans still think the economy is pretty miserable.

What might account for the paradox? New data from a research firm offers a simple, frustrating answer: Middle-class American families’ income is lower now, when adjusted for inflation, than when the recovery began half a decade ago.

Sentier Research, a firm led by former census officials, used census data to tabulate an estimate of the median household income — how much is earned by families at the exact middle of the nation’s income distribution. In June 2014, it found in a report issued Wednesday, the median household income was $53,891, down from $55,589 in inflation-adjusted dollars when the economic expansion began in June 2009.

Okay, let's recap. Gas prices have about doubled. Health insurance costs have skyrocketed. Food prices are at all time high levels. And incomes have actually decreased.

But Obama says Americans are "better off."

Unfortunately. We have to rate this as a lie.

[bicyclerepair]

Ø is but a symptom of an illiterate electorate from which we’ll never be free.

_resident clinton, get used to it.

[4Liberty]

When Obola speaks, do people still listen?

[RWB Patriot]

Like dear leader would ever admit things got bad under his watch in an election year.

[RipSawyer]

“What is NOT a lie from this feckless fool on the hill?”
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Actually some of this https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XE9mZCRX2mg seems to have the ring of truth. Even though much of it is obviously false to the point of absurdity he appears to believe what he is saying when he is talking about how wonderful Islam is. I am not a psychologist or psychiatrist but I don’t know if he has any actual CONCEPT of what the word truth might mean. He sometimes tells the truth inadvertently and he definitely told the truth when he said that he wanted to fundamentally transform America, he just neglected to say that it would all be for the worst.

[RipSawyer]

I went for one gallon of milk, one pound of ground round for burgers, one pack of eight hot dog buns and half a dozen bananas. It came to eleven dollars and change which is about what my electric bill for a month was forty years ago. That would have filled my gas tank on a full size car TWICE back in the sixties, now it won’t even buy three gallons of pure gasoline without alcohol like we had back then. It will only buy a little more than three gallons of ten percent ethanol mix.

[right way right]

Doubled prices, half the income.
What POS liar.