As Chris Deaton reports, President Obama thinks “VFW halls all across America" have a warped view of the economy. Thanks to "some cable news stations" and "right-wing radio"—as Obama tells it—Americans falsely believe that the economy isn't roaring, that a lot of people are paying more in income taxes because other people aren't paying anything, and that debt and deficits have been a problem on Obama's watch.
So let's move away from cable T.V. and talk radio and consult some government figures to see who has a warped view.
According to the Census Bureau (see the first link under "Historical"), which is housed in the Obama administration's own Commerce Department, the real (inflation-adjusted) median household income in the most recent year available (2014) was $53,657. That's 2 percent lower than in 2009 ($54,925), the year Obama took office. It's 7 percent lower than in 1999 ($57,843), fifteen years earlier. It's a paltry 0.7 percent higher than in 1989 ($53,306), a quarter of a century earlier.
According to the Obama administration's own Bureau of Labor Statistics, the employment-population ratio—which the BLS defines as "the percentage of the population that [is over 16 years of age, is not institutionalized, and] is currently working"—was 60.6 percent during the month that Obama took office (January 2009), and it has yet to hit that mark again. For the past 86 months of his presidency (and counting), the employment-population ratio has remained under 60. Pre-Obama, the last time it had been under 60 for even a single month was during the month when Back to the Future was released, more than 30 years ago.
According to the left-leaning Tax Policy Center (the Obama administration doesn't like to publish such figures), about 45 percent of all Americans don't pay any income tax. Many if not most of them actually get money back—so tax day is pay day. (Maybe it's time for a Main Street Tax Plan that addresses this problem and many others.)
Finally, according to the Obama administration's own Treasury Department, the national debt when Obama took office was $10.6 trillion. It is now $19.3 trillion—an increase of 81 percent. What's more, according to the Obama administration's own Office of Management and Budget (see the first table), the six largest deficits in United States history have all involved Obama (2009-14). Even as a percentage of the Gross Domestic Product (the most favorable way to view Obama's fiscal performance), the nine worst deficits since 1930 have all involved either World War II or Obama. (See the second table.)
It would seem it's the guy living behind the White House gates whose sense of the economy could use a dose of reality.