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GDP Figures under Obama Fail to Measure up to Reagan Era
ATR ^ | 2012-06-29 | Jeremy Sawyer

Posted on 07/03/2012 9:59:19 AM PDT by 92nina

In the aftermath of a recession in the early 1980s, President Ronald Reagan presided over a robust recovery that restarted the engines of the nation’s economic growth. Productivity picked up rapidly as policies were put in place to boost output.

Under President Obama, the recovery from the latest recession has languished. Despite the efforts of the administration to solve the problem by throwing money at it in the form of the TARP (Troubled Asset Relief Program) bailout and $787 billion stimulus, the economy has grown at a remarkably slow rate given historical precedent.

The best indicator of output is real GDP, or Gross Domestic Product. It measures the total value of all goods and services produced within a nation in a given year. Measured quarterly and adjusted for inflation, it is among the most closely watched economic indicators.

Real GDP data from the recoveries of both Reagan and Obama demonstrate that the Reagan recovery was far stronger than the economic upturn under President Obama. In the first 11 quarters since the beginning of the recovery, from the first quarter of 1983 through the third quarter of 1985, real GDP growth averaged 6.08 percent. In contrast, President Obama’s recovery saw real GDP growth average only 2.4 percent over the first 11 quarters of the recovery, which began in the third quarter of 2009. As the graph makes clear, the economy grew at a faster clip under Reagan at every point in that recovery than it has while President Obama has been in office.

Percentage of Growth in Real GDP in Recovery

Examining real GDP data across the entirety of both presidencies hardly yields better results for President Obama. In the first 13 quarters of Reagan’s presidency, the economy grew at an average quarterly rate of 3 percent. Obama, however, presided over average quarterly growth of just 1.46 percent.

Perhaps the worst news is that output appears to be heading in the wrong direction. In the last five quarters, only one (fourth quarter of 2011) has seen even measly growth of two percent. Change in output in the first quarter of 2012 was revised down to 1.9 percent from an initial estimate of 2.2 percent. The current administration has some work to do before it can compare the recovery that has occurred on its watch with the one overseen by President Reagan.

This article is from [a project of] Americans for Tax Reform Foundation

Read more: http://atr.org/gdp-figures-under-obama-fail-measure-a7008#ixzz1zZywgSou


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Government; History; Reference
KEYWORDS: bho44; economy; obama; reagan
Growth statistics show a wide gulf between the economic performance of the two administrations.

Take this article and others I found to the fight to the Libs on their own turf; put the Left on the defensive at Digg and at Reddit and in Stumbleupon and Delicious

1 posted on 07/03/2012 9:59:26 AM PDT by 92nina
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To: 92nina

Reagan wasn’t smart enough to figure out how to destroy the nation.


2 posted on 07/03/2012 10:06:17 AM PDT by Psycho_Bunny (Future generations will curse what we've done to them.)
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To: 92nina
“GDP Figures under Obama Fail to Measure up to Reagan Era” wow really? Hey ya just never know.
3 posted on 07/03/2012 10:12:53 AM PDT by jmaroneps37 (Conservatism is truth. Liberalism is lies.)
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To: 92nina
People think Obama is stupid or incompetent because the economy and everything else is so bad.

They'd be right if their premise, that Obama wants the economy to improve, was also correct. It isn't.

The FACT is, Obama is extremely competent and his results back that fact up.

He's here to take us down and remake us in the progressive Socialist Democratic model.

Not the old failed National Socialist Democratic version, but the new and improved 21st Century progressives' version.

America and her allies took down Soros' beloved National Socialist Democratic state and his life's mission is to take out each of those allies, with America being his ultimate target.

He'll do it if he can. Soros lives for it and becomes ever more dangerous the older he gets.

If a Dr. tells him he only has three months to live, those last three months and their aftermath will be our hell on Earth.

4 posted on 07/03/2012 10:16:21 AM PDT by revo evom
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