Everything is Beautiful! Obama’s non-recovery

That was the name of the hit song by country singer, Ray Stevens, a few years back, but it seems to have been hijacked by Pres. Barack Hussein Obama during his State of the Union speech before both Houses of Congress. You'd think, by listening to him, that the U.S.A. was in the throes of an economic boom. (this recovery has been the weakest in our country's modern history). He said, “we have turned the page” on our economy during his 6 years in office. That rosy scenario just doesn't meet the “smell test”. In fact, 70% of the people polled think that our economy (and country) is on the wrong track and most think things will get worse before they get better.

Since Obama is the president, most people would think that he would be “transparent” (remember when he used that word when he was first elected?) and honest. Let's see how the figures he based his very rosy economic picture on as he tried to present them at the State of the Union address, compared with the truth.

Did we turn the page, as he said, economically?

First off, tell that to both American Express and E-Bay who have announced thousands of job cuts for the year 2015. He stated during the speech that the U.S. created 3 million jobs, what he didn't say was how many of those were full-time jobs with benefits and how many were part-time jobs? Many people, if they were lucky enough to find full-time work, don't receive any where near the same level of pay or benefits that they once had, due to the paltry economic recovery Obama has presided over for the past six years.

The latest Bureau of Labor Statistics press release, stated that the unemployment rate is 5.6%. Sounds good, doesn't it? Well, if you read down to paragraph 18 of that press release – which most people don't go to (including Pres. Obama) – it mentions that hourly wages fell for the month of December by 0.2%. This was the largest drop since 2006. In addition, the “good news”, spouted by Obama, of the 5.6% jobless rate, was that the job participation rate “edged down” by 0.2% to 62.7%, a 36 year low (which means that 37.3% of the work force has quit looking for a job or are working part-time). And, still further down the Labor Dep't. Report, it reported that the U6 rate – the broadest measure of joblessness – remained at 11.2%.

So, Mr. President, where is this great economic recovery you were championing at the State of the Union, and at the various campaign stops you've attended around the country since? Is it just “happy talk” without any meaningful facts to back it up? You could say Mr. President, that no matter how hard you try to spin the facts, you can't polish horse manure, for that is what it is, plain and simple.

No matter how you slice it, when someone goes from making $80 K to making 60 K – cuts in pay upon the new hires are not captured by the Dep't . of Labor statistics - and as you can imagine, it is very hard on the family.

So, it looks like the song by Ray Stevens, “Everything is Beautiful” has been hijacked by Obama in trying to describe his not so bountiful economic recovery, when he should've used the Fats Domino song, “Ain't that a Shame” instead.

Conservative commentary by Chuck Lehmann