America's incompetent president

An editorial from Investor's Business Daily.

It's Another Lousy Jobs Report For Obama

Economy: We're told Friday's jobs report is evidence of slow and steady progress. But it actually documents the new normal of Obama's economy — anemic job growth, chronic long-term unemployment and falling wages.

Given how long the economy has been underperforming, even the smallest bit of good news is welcome. But the latest jobs report offers little of even that.

The 155,000 new jobs created in December weren't enough to make a dent in unemployment. And at this pace, it will take more than two years just to reach the previous jobs peak set back in January 2008.

And while the unemployment rate of 7.8% appears to be the same as when Obama took office, it obscures the fact that millions have given up looking for jobs and so aren't being counted as unemployed.

If you account for the unprecedented drop in labor participation under Obama, the real unemployment rate is 10.7%.

Meanwhile, the pool of long-term unemployed was a staggering 4.8 million in December, which is 2 million more than when Obama took office. The average length of unemployment was 38 months — almost 20 months longer than four years ago and 15 months longer than when the recession ended in June 2009.

And, despite Obama's endless talk about growing the economy from the bottom up, the nation's workers aren't seeing slow, steady progress when it comes to household income.

In fact, real average weekly earnings have dropped about 1% over the past two years, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. And median household income is down 7% since January 2009, according to Sentier Research.

In the face of this ongoing calamity, we get various and changing excuses about "head winds," or the lingering effects of the Bush recession, or the uncertainty caused by the fiscal cliff. Or we're told we just need to lower our expectations for growth.

And what does Obama do?

He forced a tax hike through Congress that his own favorite economists say will slow growth and cost jobs. He's continued to push forward on ObamaCare, despite the fact that it's scaring employers away from adding new jobs out of fear of getting hit with exorbitant new costs. He's taken the leash off the EPA to wreak havoc on industries with massively expensive, and entirely unnecessary new regulations. He's offered no real plans to get the nation's debt under control.

And he claims he can make up for all this economic drag with a new round of federal spending on roads.

We want the economy to grow and America to prosper as much as anyone. But it's hard to see much of that in the near future given the economic poison Obama keeps prescribing.