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Obama: 'The Economy's Gotten Better Than It Was When I First Took Office'--Really?
August 17, 2011
Quick question: Is the economy in better shape than it was in 2009? President Obama has an answer. According to him, "yes."
Obama made the statement Wednesday during an Illinois town hall, telling the crowd that the economy has gotten better since he took office (and citing private-sector jobs):
We thought we'd take a look at that claim and the economy over the last two-and-a-half years. And here's what we found:
- The president advocated a $787 billion stimulus bill that would keep unemployment below 8 percent. Since then, our economy has lost more than 1.3 million jobs and the unemployment rate has averaged over 9 percent.
- In March, the average price for a gallon of gas doubled since President Obama took office. It Averaged $3.58 then. It averages $3.59 today.
- The national debt totaled about $10.7 trillion in December 2008. Today the national debt stands at almost $14.6 trillion.
- Standard & Poor's downgraded the U.S. credit-rating for the first time in history.
And those are just a few of the stats. If we were the fact-check site Politifact, we might grade this claim as "pants on fire."
(H/T: Greg Hengler)
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