By R.J. Intindola
While this information has existed for some time, it’s been rarely mentioned over the past several months. I am referring to, who gets assigned blame for the recession and the state of the economy. At this point of the Obama tenure, he most certainly should have shown progress relative to the date he entered office. However, the 800,000+ job losses in January of 2009, the month he took the oath of office are the greatest in any single month since the Great Depression.
Nonpartisan political theorists of which I have written about on here in the past, have attempted to dissect and explain the blame game. Before digging into documentation pertaining to statistical references such as polls on who’s to blame, first let me illustrate why I titled this article, “Don’t waste your time trying to debate Republicans.” In January of this year, I discovered that having a civil and honest debate with the vast majority of Republicans was simply a waste of time. A teacher in the state of Georgia had responded to an article I wrote for another blog. Her reference was to my support and explanation of the presidents jobs bill that was never addressed by the House of Representatives. Yes, they voted approximately 30 times kill the affordable care act but never on the single most significant item that brought Republicans into office, jobs.
Georgia is a state like many others with Republican governors that have cut teacher salaries, rejected stimulus monies for schools, increased furlough days (thus reducing annual salary) is making every attempt to utilize vouchers and other resources to reduce the number of public schools and students in public education. There have been significant teacher layoffs and class sizes in most counties have increased to more than 30 students. What baffled me was that the teacher didn’t seem phased by the fact her salary was reduced, her task made more difficult due to class size, she would soon be evaluated in a manner that wouldn’t take into consideration the knowledge students had entering her class and the Republican elected officials were degrading the performance of public teachers. All of those things she said did hurt the teacher and were wrong. However, despite those issues violating her personal convictions, she stated, “Obama is the worst president we have ever had.”
The underlying theme is simply republicans hate president Obama regardless of the facts. They are programmed. Republican candidates for federal and many state offices are required to sign a loyalty oath in order to receive contributions from the party. Charlie Crist, one-time Florida governor refused to sign a loyalty oath and therefore could not run on the Republican ticket.
Now, for a few numbers that may startle most readers other than Republicans. Six months after Pres. Obama assumed office in 2009, a Gallup poll was taken regarding blame for the recession. Keep in mind that foreclosures began rising significantly in 2006 and by 2007, had reached a level of several thousand a month. The financial industry and markets had collapsed from the latter part of 2007 and 2008. Unemployment was increasing rapidly. After six months in office, 32% blamed Obama for recession that was started three years before he assumed office. In 2012 when the same question was asked, the good news for the Democrats is that 68% of all people blamed George Bush ranging from a great deal to a moderate amount of blame. On the other hand, only 52% indicated President Obama is to blame from a great deal to a moderate extent. Here is the link to the Gallup poll.