Even though the author may want to use a base year of 2007 to emphasize the destruction wrought by the Democrat-controlled Congress, it makes the article weaker than it would have been if the percentage increase had been calculated starting from Obama's inauguration rather than from 2007.
That is an excellent troll strategy. It swells with fairness, and that most excellent of concepts, "liberal goodness."
Almost as annointed (and meaningless) as "fair share."
Any rational adult knows that the prospect of an anonymous radical, totally off the political and personal grid, with a history of radical associations, a totally blank personal history and no accomplishments whatsoever that could be confirmed was, well, frightening.
That businesses large and small contracted and froze future plans until seeing what would happen, and ultimately confirmed their worst fear of a communist/radical attack of the economic foundations of our country was not an accident. It was a conscious and justified fear, confirmed beyond any reasonable doubt.
I knew that, and started planning accordingly. I shouted from the rooftops, "What hope? what change?" and I'm just a Joe (formerly) Middle Class.
The comparison to 2007 simply confirms the prescient fears of the vast majority of the American business community and the wisdom of the collective productive American citizen working middle class.
But that was a nice try!