Economic Progress

When, Obama took office, we we’re in the middle of the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression.  America had lost 650,000 jobs in December 2008.  An additional 700,000 jobs were lost in January, the month Obama was sworn in. Twenty-four days after Obama took office the Recovery and Reinvestment Act was passed, without a single Republican vote in the House and only 3 Republican votes in the Senate.  By doing so, they prevented the worst financial crisis from getting worse and turned the economy from contraction to expansion. 

By December 2009, employment in the private sector had risen by 1.1 million, and every months since we've seen job growth. The Obama administration has created many more jobs, than Bush did in 8 years. 

By early 2010, the DOW was up 11%, and we had seen a 10% growth in private sector jobs.  Recently, corporate profits as a percentage of U.S. economic growth reached their highest level in the three decades.  Profits had plummeted to the lowest point ever, when the recession hit, but in January corporate profits reached their highest point ever as a share of GDP. 

After three years, General Motors is once again the number one car maker in the world. Three years ago, Obama engineered an $80 billion loan for the automobile industry. He took a huge risk, and it is paying off, and no congressional Republicans supported the loan. In fact, Mitt Romney wrote an article entitled, “Let Detroit Go Bankrupt.” 


Recently, we’ve learned jobless claims fell to a four-year low, the lowest levels since April 2008. Jobless claims have fallen ever since Obama’s stimulus package went into effect and the stock market has risen more than 50%. The unemployment is now at 8.6%, and economist see a slow, but steady improvement.