Daily Archives: January 6, 2012

All You Need to Know About Politics 1-6-12

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Here are the latest numbers:
Bush debt increase: 85%
Obama debt increase: 43%
Bush increase in unemployment: 86%
Obama increase in unemployment: 9%

Bottom Line: Anyone that tells you President Obama ran up the debt percentage wise more the President Bush OR that President Obama ran up unemployment percentage wise more than Bush IS A LIAR and here are the numbers and references to absolutely unquestionable sources (Treasury Department and The Bureau of Labor Statistics).*

Please note the the seasonably abjusted unemployment numbers for December was revised downward to 8.5% so don’t let them tell you it was Christmas help.

http://www.bls.gov/news.release/empsit.a.htm

This is a graph of the debt since 1950 (click on the graphs to make them larger)…

This is the rate of increase of the debt since 1950…

Please note the difference from 2001 to 2009 and 2009 to 2011. This is Bush vs Obama

Note: The graph only uses full fiscal year data. The last fiscal year ended was September 30, 2011

Here is the data and links to the Treasury Department to verify the numbers…

The links shown above are:
Historical Debt Outstanding – Annual 2000 – 2010
Historical Debt Outstanding – Annual 1950 – 1999
The Debt to the Penny and Who Holds It
Debt Position and Activity Report
The Debt to the Penny and Who Holds It (type in Enter Beginning Date: 9/30/11)

Check for yourself…
From January 20, 2001 to January 20, 2009 the national debt increased from $5,727,776,738,304.64 to $10,626,877,048,913.08. For those that still believe in arithmetic this is an 85% increase in the debt over the Bush administration’s term ((10,626,877,048,913.08 / 5,727,776,738,304.64) * 100) = 185% or an 85% increase).

From January 20, 2009 to January 5, 2012 the national debt increased from $10,626,877,048,913.08 to $15,236,541,899,973.10. This is a 43% increase in debt over President Obama’s term ((15,236,541,899,973.10 / 10,626,877,048,913.08) * 100) = 143% or a 43% increase).

Don’t take my word for it, check it out on the US Treasury Department site at:
http://www.treasurydirect.gov/NP/BPDLogin?application=np

When Bush took office on January 20, 2001, the national unemployment rate was 4.2%. When he left office on January 20, 2009 and President Obama took office the national unemployment rate was 7.8%
http://www.bls.gov/cps/prev_yrs.htm

The current unemployment rate as of January 6, 2012 is 8.5%
http://www.bls.gov/news.release/empsit.nr0.htm

Doing the math, the increase during the Bush administration was (7.8 / 4.2) * 100 = 186% or a 86% increase in unemployment. For the Obama administration the math is (8.5 / 7.8) * 100 = 109% or a 9% increase in unemployment.

* Note: I have revised this based the January, 2009 unemployment number of 7.8%. Preseident Obama took office January, 20, 2009. From the graph below you can see that the unemployment rate exploded just as he got into office. I think this explosion arguably was not due to anything President Obama did in his first few months (just 4 months later the rate was 9.4%) as the national unemployment rate does not turn on the dime but I will give the detractors the benefit of the doubt. There is still a huge difference in 86% (Bush) and 9% (Obama). If the numbers from 4 months after President Obama took office are used they work out to:

Bush administration increase in unemployment: 124%

Obama administration decrease in unemployment: 10%

Transition Date: End of May, 2009

Given this, the difference would be a 134% increase in unemployment during the Bush administration over the Obama administration. I would love it of someone could explain to me how this is an indictment of the Democrats? Doesn’t this clearly show that the Democrats are doing something right and the Bush administration did something wrong? Why are we suppose to believe that this is something peculiar to the Bush Presidency and not endemic to the ideology of Republicanism that ALREADY is back to the rhetoric of deregulation?

http://data.bls.gov/timeseries/lns14000000

The Fox and the Hen House

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Once upon a time there was a fox. The fox was placed in charge of the hen house. The fox’s job was to regulate all the activity of the hen house. However, the fox was wily and was opposed to regulation. Therefore, he ate all the hens. However, this did not satisfy the fox. So, the fox invited all his friends to a meeting. When all his friends were gathered he said, “We need to guard all the hen houses in the land. If we do this we can happily eat hens forever. I propose that we buy up all the hen houses in the land. I also propose that we borrow the money to buy all the hen houses and the factory that makes money. If we do this we can make more money to borrow to buy more hen houses. We can also buy all authority in the land so we can place ourselves in charge of the hen houses. However, since we are smart we will make sure we do not eat all the hens. We must maintain a healthy population of hens. The hens must think all is well so they will be fat and juicy. We will make the hens pay taxes – their first born, while we will convince the hens that since we are the job creators we will not have to pay any taxes. However, since the hens must eat to live we will put them to work in the fields to grow grains. We will build factories to process the grain into seed. We will pay them very little but don’t worry fellow fox friends we will make them pay for their food. Between the taxes and the food, we will get all our invested money back. We will tell them this is capitalism. If we get too many working hens and we do not have enough work for them and we can’t eat them all, we will just let the excess hens die off thinking that they are lazy and do not deserve the things that working hens get. We will create wars so we can make them think we will protect them. We will make them think that the governing authority is evil and, even though we are the governing authority, we will make them think that we will protect them from the governing authority. If there are any smart chickens among them making problems we will make the majority of the hens believe that these free ranging chickens are secretly foxes in chickens clothes. We will make the hens think that we are on the side of their god, the great rooster in the sky. We will side with all their social issues like their belief that there should not be a chicken in every pot. We will make sure there are many hens for one rooster. We will make sure that we interpret the original intent of the constitution of all chickens to make sure it allows for all our ravenous goals. In the land of the chicken the fox will be king. My fellow foxes we are elite and deserve to eat dumb chickens forever.” All the foxes cheered the wily fox for his cunning and wisdom and proceeded to eat chickens for the rest of their lives and all the foxes lived happily ever after.

The End