Posted on 04/26/2011 8:09:42 AM PDT by freespirited
While the national seasonally-adjusted unemployment rate is 1.5 percentage points higher than during President George Bushs last full month in office, life is surprisingly good for folks living near the Beltway. On an unadjusted basis and as of February 2011, the unemployment rate of the Washington D.C. metropolitan area was 3.6 percentage points lower than the national average. The gap between Washingtons local unemployment and the national rate is higher than it ever was during the Bush administration.
According to The Economist, the Washington D.C. metro area accounted for 6% of the nations job growth over the past year, in an area that holds just 2% of the countrys population. In the one-year period ending January 2011, the S&P/Case-Schiller Index of home prices fell nationally by 3% for 20 large cities, whereas it rose 3.6% for the D.C. metro region. In 2009, the regions GDP grew at +2.2%, compared with the overall United States -1.7%.
Much of this growth is due to the expansion of federal government. In fact, since Obama became president, federal employees have made up a steadily increasing percentage of total nonfarm employment in the D.C. metro region.
The absolute number of federal employees in the metro area has also increased rapidly from Bush Administration levels.
To finance much of this government growth, the Obama administration has run massive budget deficits totaling as much as 10% of the United States GDP.
The Obama administration has rapidly expanded the national debt in order to fund these deficits. One of the consequences of these massive annual increases in federal debt is Standard & Poors recent downgrade of Americas debt outlook from stable to negative.
Unfortunately, the Presidents response to this crisis resorts to the old Democratic saw of class warfare, thereby distracting the public as the government raids the public treasury.
Even after the recent budget compromise, the United States government will still likely grow faster than Chinese GDP in 2011. As the President expands the ranks of Washingtons bureaucratic elite, other Americans still suffer from a persistently high unemployment rate.
When the United States government is growing faster than the explosive Chinese economy, something is very wrong.
Thanks, nepotism!
It is 5 times higher... you base this on lies... we all know that unemployment is truly over 20%.
LLS
Not you personally but the author based his unemployment figures on obama lies... sorry.
LLS
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