Patriot Update

Once the passions of the moment have settled down and historians have had time to undertake a retrospective view of things, presidents are generally remembered by their records.  Some benefit from the more objective perspective of history and some do not.  At the moment, President Obama benefits from being telegenic, having the support of the mainstream media, and having a firm grip on the loyalty of Americans who subsist by dipping into the federal treasury. However, Obama is driving America’s train down a one-way track that will take it over a cliff, and what awaits us at the bottom of the cliff is disaster.

In years to come, when historians have had the time to gain a more realistic perspective on Barack Obama’s performance as president, they are going to have to analyze some facts that will be difficult for even the most liberal among them to excuse or ignore.  Consider just a few of the records set by President Obama during his time in office, and while doing so also consider that the sources of the information presented herein include his own Office of Management and Budget and Bureau of Labor Statistics:

• America’s sovereign debt rating has been downgraded for the first time in our nation’s history.
• Federal spending is the highest it has been since World War II (25 percent of GDP).
• The budget deficit is the highest it has been since World War II (10 percent of GDP).
• Federal debt is the highest it has been since just after World War II (67 percent of GDP).
• Employment as a percentage of the population is the lowest it has been since 1983 (just 58.1 percent of the population are working).
• Long-term unemployment is the highest it has been since 1939 (45.9 percent of the total unemployed are now long-term unemployed).
• Slowest recovery following a severe recession since World War II.
• Lowest homeownership rate since 1965 (59.7 percent).
• Lowest percentage of taxpayers paying income taxes in the modern era (49 percent).
• Highest rate of government dependency in American history (47 percent of Americans receive one or more federal benefit payments).

These numbers show conclusively the implications of the philosophy that government is the answer.  What they do not show is the steady erosion of the work ethic and its replacement by an entitlement mentality.  As things stand now, only a little over half of all Americans are working and less than half are paying taxes to finance the massive federal spending of the Obama administration.  What President Obama’s “records” amount to in practical terms is this: When you have more people riding in the economic wagon than you have pulling it, the economy will fail.  Thanks to Barack Obama and his comrades on the left, American is closing in on the tipping point.