Posted on 01/30/2013 8:05:45 AM PST by COBOL2Java
The White House on Wednesday blamed a surprising economic decline in the fourth quarter of 2012 on the uncertainty of the ‘fiscal cliff’ feud with Congress and the effects of Superstorm Sandy.
Alan Krueger, chairman of the president’s Council of Economic Advisers, said the first contraction of the GDP in 3½ years was partly because “federal defense spending declined precipitously, likely due to uncertainty stemming from the sequester” — deep automatic defense and non-defense spending cuts that were narrowly avoided at the end of last year. He also said Sandy, which struck the East Coast in late October, “disrupted economic activity.”
The poor economic report was a blow to start President Obama’s second term, after he waged a re-election campaign grounded in his promise of better days ahead for the middle class. The fourth-quarter slowdown was a sharp drop from the 3.1 percent growth rate in the July-to-September quarter.
Mr. Krueger said federal defense purchases dropped by an annual rate of 22.2 percent in the fourth quarter of 2012, the largest decline in 40 years. The so-called fiscal cliff would have imposed steep cuts in defense spending in an effort to reduce deficits; Mr. Obama and congressional Republicans agreed on Jan. 1 to delay the cuts for two months while they negotiate on a longer-range budget deal. They also agreed to extend tax cuts for families earning less than $450,000 per year.
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtontimes.com ...
Sandy, its the new George W.
no doubt some other person or event, will come along to derail poor obammies wonderful economic recovery., gosh darn it, dear reader just cant get a break!
I’ve gotta believe a lot of lib “experts” are starting to wonder. I can’t believe they all think it’s just bad luck for King Barack. They can’t seriously still be blaming Bush. Or can they? Even I don’t think these collective nitwits yet believe Dubya is still pulling the levers. At some point their fingers surely must begin to point at the White House as their noses sniff the rotten stench of Obamanomics.
I dunno. The USSR got away with blaming poor crop yields on 70 years of bad weather.
Gee, what else happened in the 4th quarter of last year that might have DEPRESSED a lot of people and businesses? Uh ..... maybe the election results? Obummer being re-elected perhaps?
Obama says that the economy shrank because Bush spent $142 billion in federal funds on Katrina.
60B on Sandy.
And the libs wanted Bush to spend more in N.O.
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