High-water mark for President Obama and the Democrats

President Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama bring toys to support U.S. Marine Corps Toys For Tots

Take note of December 2014 as the high-water mark for President Barack Obama, the Democrats in Congress, and the United States itself. Starting in January 2015, when Republicans take over the U.S. Senate, life in America could get much worse.

It’s important to recap and tout what we have achieved, to remember just how much things have improved since George W. Bush left office dumping the Great Recession upon us:

Economic growth
The U.S. Gross Domestic Product grew at 5 percent last quarter, the highest growth rate in over a decade. And such growth is no fluke, as the previous quarter grew at 4.6 percent. As a result, consumer confidence is at an eight-year high. What was the real GDP growth rate for the 4th quarter of 2008, i.e., the economy that George W. Bush handed to Barack Obama? The GDP didn’t grow at all, it declined 6.2 percent!

Job creation
Under President Obama, the U.S. has had the longest streak of private sector job growth in its history, creating 10.9 million private sector jobs over 57 consecutive months. Indeed, 2.65 million U.S. jobs were created thus far in 2014 alone, making this the best year for job creation since the 1990s.

Unemployment
The U.S. unemployment rate has fallen to 5.8 percent after Bush handed Obama an unemployment rate of 7.6 percent and rising in January 2009.

Deficit
The U.S. budget deficit is down to $483 billion for 2014 and is expected to fall even further in 2015. That is in comparison to the whopping $1.4 trillion deficit that George W. Bush handed to Barack Obama, after Bush had inherited a budget surplus (and additional projected budget surpluses) from Democratic President Bill Clinton.

Healthcare
President Obama pushed for passage of, and signed, the historic Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, which has resulted in an estimated 9 to 11 million more Americans having healthcare insurance by early 2015. Such healthcare insurance includes protections against being denied coverage for pre-existing conditions, no more lifetime limits in healthcare benefits, free preventive care and screenings in many cases, and coverage of young Americans on their parents’ plans until age 26. Moreover, since passage of the Affordable Care Act, U.S. healthcare spending has moderated, and the U.S. budget deficit is expected to shrink as a result.

Gasoline prices
Gas prices at the pump have dropped to just $2.03 per gallon in recent days, with plenty of instances of under-$2 per gallon prices cited. While gasoline prices depend on many international and national factors, some of the credit goes to President Obama due to steps such as increased oil production in the U.S. and higher mileage requirements for motor vehicles.

Stock market
Since Bush left office amid a plummeting stock market, the markets have more than doubled, are setting record after record, and the Dow Jones Industrial Average even surpassed 18,000. Ironically, many Republicans and conservative groups have lots of extra money to run ads bashing President Obama precisely because they have made so much on their investments under Obama. These stock market increases have also helped middle class Americans on Main Street who have retirement investments in 401k plans, IRAs, pension funds, etc.

Foreign Policy
Osama bin Laden was killed at President Obama’s direction, after George W. Bush stated:

I don’t know where he is. Nor do I … I just don’t spend that much time on him.

The Iraq and Afghanistan wars have ended. The ghastly, illegal and ineffective U.S. torture program, as outlined in the recent Senate Report, has also been ended under President Obama.

Unfortunately, beginning in 2015, Republicans may to try to reverse many of these achievements, first and foremost tanking the U.S. economy, either deliberately so that they can run on what they would call a “failed” economy in 2016, or by pursuing the same shopworn policies that caused the Bush Recession in the first place. Remember that leading Republicans met on the night of President Obama’s inauguration in January 2009, and plotted not to cooperate with Obama on anything. Republicans acted accordingly, refusing to help lift our economy out of the Bush recession with the 2009 Stimulus, refusing to help provide affordable healthcare to more Americans, and even refusing to close tax loopholes which reward U.S. companies for moving and sending jobs overseas. Instead of lifting a finger to help create jobs, the Republicans kowtowed to their base, voting over 50 times to repeal the Affordable Care Act and spending additional time voting to ban abortions. Thus, all of the achievements listed above can be attributed to the Democrats.

With Republicans in charge of the U.S. House of Representatives and the U.S. Senate, we can expect more of the conservative Bush ideology that caused the Great Recession and the Iraq War folly. We saw a preview of Bush part deux in the recent “CRomibus” bill, where Republicans insisted on provisions that put American taxpayers on the hook for more derivatives bailouts, cut multiemployer pensions for hardworking construction workers and truck drivers, cut funding for the Environmental Protection Agency and for nutrition for women, infants and children, etc.

There is another path, one of cooperation between Congressional Republicans and President Obama. Both sides can agree to do things that help America. For example, our roads and bridges are in dire need of repair. Fixing them would put people to work in good construction jobs, and  help big corporations and small businesses alike to ship and deliver their products safer and more efficiently. That’s a win-win for everyone. Likewise, increased promotion of clean renewable energy would create good jobs that can’t be exported, increase overall U.S. energy production, lessen our dependence on energy from nasty or unstable foreign countries, and reduce global warming (at least for those who believe in facts and science). With such win-win programs, both Republicans and Democrats would get credit for success.

But don’t expect Republicans to walk down this path of success. Based on their track record, the Republicans would rather try to score political points, even if it means that America falls from its current high-water mark.

Photo by DoD News Features, used under Creative Commons license. http://is.gd/LaPD2l