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© Copyright 2020 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.U.S. unemployment surges to a Depression-era level of 14.7%
By CHRISTOPHER RUGABER WASHINGTON©2025 GPlusMedia Inc.
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113 Comments
SuperLib
Bad news for Trump.
Chip Star
Very bad news for Trump as it’s going to take far longer than a few months for demand to increase for anything, which will lead to re-employment.
While economics did not cause the collapse of the economy, it sure has heck will play a part in its recovery.
The last time we saw a collapse in the economy even approaching this magnitude was because of zagged previous republican president’s gutting of banking regulations. That requires Dodd and Frank to create a law to reimpose regulations and a democratic president to fix the economy. Will democrats have to save the economy once again from Republican incompetence?
regulations
PTownsend
This is on Trump and the now clearly shown to be flimsy American political-economic system unprepared for and unable to stand a pandemic that had long been predicted to happen.
The Avenger
None of this was inevitable. The GOP wants you to blame China for not being open about how bad it was there. Don't buy it. It's Trump's fault. Wholly Trump's fault. The US Intelligent agencies warned him. He ignored the warnings. He dismantled the pandemic response team because it was an Obama thing. He pulled CDC monitors out of China. And he populated agencies with sycophants who are more interested in keeping him happy by echoing his dementia-addled fantasies than being straight with the public.
And the GOP had a chance to rid the country of him, but they bent over backwards, every last member save one, to keep him in office to do the damage to the country he's now doing.
Wolfpack
The Left and President Trump don’t believe the intelligence agencies because of the missing weapons of mass destruction.
bass4funk
I don’t think so, he probably would have injected trillions of aid or what we call printing more money, surpassing all of Trump’s debt and his own previous debt. This is what Obama had in place and as most Democrats think, spending your way and increasing entitlements is the answer and it never is, never was for CA and NY where even making 80K a year won’t get you much, these fools believe throwing Fed money Will fix all our woes, increasing taxes and regulations will help and it never does.
Chip Star
Unless it’s about the coronavirus escaping the lane in Wuhan, then Donny and his fans are the utmost cheerleaders of the intelligence agencies.
Donny and his fans live by a simple rule: When it supports them, it’s credible; when it doesn’t support them, it lacks credibility. This holds true for polls, news sources, and the intelligence agencies.
PTownsend
Are you referring to Trump's current program to bailout his fellow 'elite' running global corporations, those with the power to continue to skew politics and government funds for their personal benefit?
Chip Star
Donny has injected trillions in aid into the economy, just like Obama was forced to do to pull the economy out of the abyss into which republicans pushed it into. Obama’s subsidies were temporary, just like Donny’s, so no problem at all.
bass4funk
Here’s the difference, now with high unemployment and the 15% and basically we’re just printing money, with no real revenue, because multiple states won’t even allow people to go back to work, we don’t really have enough money left for entitlements or even for Democrats to massively overhaul the country after two massive trillion stimulus packages, that is completely unsustainable and will never work, because there isn’t really any revenue left to draw from, so the best thing to do is for people to get back to work and Democrats don’t have anything to siphon off with anymore to start a massive entitlement overhaul.
bass4funk
that provide means of jobs to people with high wages, so that people can get back to work in that rely on the federal government, so people can spend money and pay taxes that the federal government can get? Seems like a win, win to me. People can work and make money and the feds get the money that they need.
dagon
The leaps in logic , or more precisely illogic divorced from history and facts sustain Trump and his supporters and what make them prey to baseless conspiracy. So, "money to people with "high wages"(which usually are not from wages but rents and dividends on capital) are a win", when all this has been shown to do is lead to stock buybacks, more job cuts to boost stock valuations in a recovering market, and offshoring of gains by capitalists as a shelter in times of economic uncertainty. Then complaining about "free money handouts" and fiscal responsibility when it comes to basic income support to workers in an economic crisis which would almost immediately go back into the economy.
The hypocrisy is almost religious in its intensity as long as they keep believing they are "winning".
Numan
LOL!
Trump’s Live Reaction to Record Unemployment: Don’t Blame Me
https://www.yahoo.com/news/trump-live-reaction-record-unemployment-133210016.html
Despite disowning any blame for the current state of the economy, trump went on to boast at length about the strength of it before it was decimated by the coronavirus pandemic.
People who don't live in the bubble knows that trump has been riding Pres. Obama's coattail on the economy.
trump is responsible for the poor economy that he bragged about like the pandemic response that he failed at.
bass4funk
The more important question is what have to governors done with the money that was given to them especially the blue states that now I want to get billed out with all the stimulus, Trump has done more to make sure that the country stays afloat in that nature manufacturing continues to run. The first priority is people need to eat people need maintenance, people need to drink, people need the basics to survive, and now that we are near the slowing down of this five people need to get back to work, that’s all there is to it and you can do it in a safe manner.
it would be an even higher if he were president right now if you include all the stimulus and regulations and taxes that he would impose on the nation
Numan
Majority says Obama would handle coronavirus better than Trump, who tops Biden: poll
https://thehill.com/homenews/administration/491713-majority-in-new-poll-says-obama-would-do-better-job-fighting-pandemic
Ronald Reagan 1979: "Are you better off today than you were four years ago?"
Nope,
Dump trump 2020
bass4funk
Yes, so up until February the country was at its strongest since the 50’s.
That’s absolutely and factually not true. If that were true Trump would have never changed the corporate tax code, lowered taxes, got rid of all regulations, gave incentives to job creators, lowered tax rates for small business owners and encouraged more offshore investments had this been under Obama, he never would have done this and wouldn’t do it now, so to even imply that Obama would have handled this better, he would have printed more more which is exactly what you don’t want, you need people to get back to work and start generating revenue and handing out printed paper won’t solve that.
He is, as well as all these governors that won’t allow people to make a living as well as these judges that want to imprison people for trying to eat.
Numan
Obama's spending was to solve the problems created by the previous terrible president. He left the country in better place than he received it.
Americans Say Barack Obama Was Best President of Their Lifetimes
https://time.com/5336305/barack-obamas-best-president-survey/
The pattern is that the Republicans ruin the country when everything is good, and everyone votes for a Democrat to fix everything! The cycle repeats!
bass4funk
In the new poll, 52 percent of the survey’s 1,990 respondents said they believed that Obama would be a better leader than Trump during the ongoing pandemic, compared to the 38 percent who said they thought Trump is the better leader.
online...hmmm....
Here’s the Major fundamental difference, Reagan put the entire country to work, massively cut taxes, cut entitlements and created a strong private sector, rebuilt the military which is the exact opposite from what Biden will do.
Trump/Pence 2020
Numan
Thanks to Pres. Obama!
Trump himself expressed a similar sentiment in 2013 on Twitter.
The president is failing, and Americans are paying for his failures.
bass4funk
Which wouldn’t have happened if Dodd and Frank (both Democrats) wouldn’t have issued loans to people that couldn’t pay them. In the beginning he had to, but after that, that’s where the problems in the private sector began.
If people thought that Hillary would have won.
Historians have a very different take.
https://www.brookings.edu/blog/fixgov/2018/04/06/the-fragile-legacy-of-barack-obama/
and then Republicans have to fix all the wasted money the Democrats threw out on failed projects and entitlements.
Serrano
It's gonna go higher than 20%. Reopen the economy now with precautions as much as possible! No? OK, let's suffer then.
Bad news for Trump
Bad news for most of the country. Great news for the Democrats.
Numan
@Bass
1) We are not talking about Biden. We are talking about Pres. Obama record compared to trump's record.
Stay on topic instead of distracting and changing subjects.
2) Ronald Reagan "reversed his world’s ‘largest tax cut’ and raised taxes when revenues did not match the expectations." I believe 11-12 times if my memory serves me correctly!
What we learned from Reagan's tax cuts?
https://www.brookings.edu/blog/up-front/2017/12/08/what-we-learned-from-reagans-tax-cuts/
They failed! It was so bad that Pres. Bush and Clinton also needed to raise taxes to correct Reagan's big failure.
The cycle repeats!
dagon
Reagan made Social Security benefits taxable https://www.ssa.gov/history/taxationofbenefits.html .
Trump 'encouraged offshore investment'.
How does any of this help average Americans?
It is like with Trump, there is no filter on their obvious hypocrisy and illogic among his cultists and sometimes the truth comes out of their flapping mouths.
Blacklabel
18 of the 20 million are on furlough. They go back to work as soon as “the office” opens back up.
bass4funk
Obama didn’t have the CV-19 to deal with, Obama didn’t worry about the private sector or eve the black community that’s why Maxine Waters confronted him with that, also the governors in these blue states where the majority of Blacks live never were held accountable for mismanaging their States and letting down the Black communities.
California is a great example of wealth, so why isn’t Newsom doing something about it or the mayor of Chicago?
Not looking great for Biden either with the Tara Reade debacle, that’s not going away and this time, Dems can’t stop this train.
And it will double that if we have a Democrat President.
Serrano
Trump wanted to cut back on food stamps.
I know this is a pesky fact, but Trump's economic policies have lifted millions off food stamps and welfare.
bass4funk
But he’s the contender, so we have to.
Which in his last term was abysmal
Reagan also slashed the deficit and strengthened the private sector massively.
President Ronald Reagan's record includes sweeping economic reforms and deep across-the-board tax cuts, market deregulation, and sound monetary policies to contain inflation. His policies resulted in the largest peacetime economic boom in American history and nearly 35 million more jobs. As the Joint Economic Committee reported in April 2000:2
Even with the growing surplus, however, a small but vocal faction in Congress opposes any policies that would allow taxpayers to keep more of their own money through real tax cuts and that generally would shift power from the government to the people. This attempt to rewrite history should not be surprising. Proponents of additional government spending try to make the Reagan boom appear to be a bust because they fear that Reagan's success will help President Bush build popular support for lower taxes, further deregulation, and reduced government spending. But their rhetoric is easily countered by the evidence.history confirms the soundness of the Reagan, and now Bush, approach to economic policy. Under President Reagan, federal revenues increased even with tax cuts, federal spending did not decrease, the country experienced the longest period of sustained growth during peacetime in its history, and the rich paid more taxes proportionately than they had before the tax cuts were implemented.
https://www.heritage.org/taxes/report/the-real-reagan-economic-record-responsible-and-successful-fiscal-policy
Not only did they not fail, but we experienced one of the biggest economic growth rates since after the war.
This is another reason why Biden won’t make it.
Jimizo
Which historians? I hope the ‘historian’ in your link is non-partisan like your still unnamed non-partisan historians who claimed Bush 2 was a successful president.
SuperLib
At the cost of a trillion dollars a year deficits to help the already wealthy.
Blacklabel
I’m just mentioning furlough now for when all these people return to work. People here will of course then say those aren’t “new” jobs and don’t count for job creation numbers.
Blacklabel
By election: Unemployment was 33 million but now its only 4 million! Amazing job President Trump!
liberals and their sympathizers: he didn’t do anything just people “went back to the job they already had”. Meh.
dagon
Trump logic translator 2.0-"Trump policies lifted millions off food stamps and welfare".
Solution- Trump policies increased the burden of means-testing for benefits while slashing them forcing millions to take sub living wage "McJobs" in places like Walmart that pay less than their previous benefits. These jobs have to be supported by taxpayer funded benefits any way because they pay so little, so in effect corporate welfare for Walmart and retail and service business. And of course many of these "great jobs" Trump policies created evaporated in the crisis.
Chip Star
Trump continually says that, “the U.S. is experiencing the best economy ever.” This is obvious gaslighting since the new results show that President Trump’s best year of job growth was 2.314 million in 2018 (the first year of the tax cut) but it falls short of any of Obama’s last three years.
The previous and updated job growth yearly totals for Obama’s last six years in office after the Great Recession and Trump’s first three years, along with the revisions, are:
2011: 2.075 million fell to 2.074 million, down 1,000 jobs
2012: 2.174 million fell to 2.176 million, up 2,000 jobs
2013: 2.302 million fell to 2.301 million, down 1,000 jobs
2014: 3.006 million fell to 3.004 million, down 2,000 jobs
2015: 2.729 million fell to 2.72 million, down 9,000 jobs
2016: 2.318 million increased to 2.345 million, up 27,000 jobs
2017: 2.153 million fell to 2.109 million, down 44,000 jobs
2018: 2.679 million fell to 2.314 million, down 365,000 jobs (Trump’s best year)
2019: 2.115 million fell to 2.096 million, down 19,000 jobs
While not exceeding Obama’s last three years, Trump’s 2.314 million in 2018 barely beat Obama’s 2.301 in 2014.
https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.forbes.com/sites/chuckjones/2020/02/07/obamas-last-three-years-of-job-growth-all-beat-trumps-best-year/amp/
Facts constantly trump Donny’s fans’ claims, pun very much intended.
Blacklabel
Who agreed the first 2 years of Obama don’t count?
bass4funk
If you can make a list of names poor people that can provide people with jobs, careers and security, I won’t say anything.
This is a huge reason why and makes perfect sense.
https://reason.com/2019/05/03/democrats-want-to-fight-poverty-but-dont-value-letting-people-work/
They should end
https://www.dailysignal.com/2013/06/03/food-stamps-dont-stimulate-economic-growth/
First, food stamps are intended to serve as a temporary safety net for those who face economic hardship, not as an economic stimulus. To justify food stamps as a stimulus to raise government revenue ignores the long-term economic consequences of welfare spending.
Total government welfare spending has reached nearly $1 trillion annually, and the food stamps program is one of the largest of the government’s approximately 80 welfare programs, costing taxpayers roughly $80 billion a year.
However, private savings help lift people out of poverty and boost the economy, but high rates of government borrowing can weaken the economy and harm Americans.
.
dagon
Trump logic translator 2.0-Total government welfare spending has reached nearly $1 trillion
annually, and the food stamps program is one of the largest of the
government’s approximately 80 welfare programs, costing taxpayers
roughly $80 billion a year.
Solution-About $59 billion is spent on traditional social welfare programs. $92 billion is spent on corporate subsidies. So, the government spent nearly 50% more on corporate welfare than it did on food stamps and housing assistance in 2006.
https://thinkbynumbers.org/government-spending/corporate-welfare/corporate-vs-social-welfare/
bass4funk
Sad for a State I was born in to see it ruined by Democrats...
https://www.manhattan-institute.org/html/why-liberal-california-poverty-capital-america-10882.html
Guess which state has the highest poverty rate in the country? Not Mississippi, New Mexico, or West Virginia, but California, where nearly one out of five residents is poor. That's according to the Census Bureau's Supplemental Poverty Measure, which factors in the cost of housing, food, utilities and clothing, and which includes noncash government assistance as a form of income.
Given robust job growth and the prosperity generated by several industries, it's worth asking why California has fallen behind, especially when the state's per-capita GDP increased approximately twice as much as the U.S. average over the five years ending in 2016 (12.5%, compared with 6.27%).
So why is that exactly?
California state and local governments spent nearly $958 billion from 1992 through 2015 on public welfare programs, including cash-assistance payments, vendor payments and “other public welfare,” according to the Census Bureau. California, with 12% of the American population, is home today to about one in three of the nation’s welfare recipients. The generous spending, then, has not only failed to decrease poverty; it actually seems to have made it worse.
Exactly.
https://www.latimes.com/opinion/op-ed/la-oe-jackson-california-poverty-20180114-story.html
And that’s just California, we didn’t even hit the other wealthy States that have money yet.
Chip Star
These media sources are moderately to strongly biased toward conservative causes through story selection and/or political affiliation. They may utilize strong loaded words (wording that attempts to influence an audience by using appeal to emotion or stereotypes), publish misleading reports and omit reporting of information that may damage conservative causes. Some sources in this category may be untrustworthy. See all Right Bias sources.
https://www.google.com/amp/s/mediabiasfactcheck.com/manhattan-institute-for-policy-research/%3famp
oldman_13
Open up the country already.
Enough is enough, we cannot afford any more economic damage to that which already has been done.
The initial sheltering in place was understandable but the more we know about this coronavirus, the more we realize it actually is just like any other flu type infection.
Majority of those infected do not even show any symptoms. Keep the very elderly isolated, but allow healthy people to start working again.
Blacklabel
Trump is President:
U.S. unemployment surges to a Depression-era level of 14.7%.
When Dem is President:
Despite world wide pandemic, US unemployment barely more than half of the Depression peak．
Chip Star
From 2019:
While Mississippi's poverty rate isn't as high as Louisiana's, the state has the lowest median income of all 50 states, putting it at the bottom of the list.
https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.businessinsider.com/personal-finance/poorest-states-in-the-us-by-median-household-income-2019-8%3famp
These media sources have a slight to moderate liberal bias. They often publish factual information that utilizes loaded words (wording that attempts to influence an audience by using appeal to emotion or stereotypes) to favor liberal causes. These sources are generally trustworthy for information, but may require further investigation. See all Left-Center sources.
https://www.google.com/amp/s/mediabiasfactcheck.com/business-insider/%3famp
Mississippi.
https://www.usnews.com/news/best-states/slideshows/us-states-with-the-highest-poverty-rates
These media sources have a slight to moderate liberal bias. They often publish factual information that utilizes loaded words (wording that attempts to influence an audience by using appeal to emotion or stereotypes) to favor liberal causes. These sources are generally trustworthy for information, but may require further investigation. See all Left-Center sources.
https://www.google.com/amp/s/mediabiasfactcheck.com/us-news-world-report/%3famp
Mississippi.
https://www.thebalance.com/us-poverty-rate-by-state-4585001
These sources have minimal bias and use very few loaded words (wording that attempts to influence an audience by using appeal to emotion or stereotypes). The reporting is factual and usually sourced. These are the most credible media sources. See all Least Biased Sources.
https://www.google.com/amp/s/mediabiasfactcheck.com/the-balance/%3famp
Blacklabel
This is an apple.
Year 1 of Trump vs Year 1 of Obama: Trump wins?
Year 2 of Trump vs Year 2 of Obama; Trump wins?
Year 3 of Trump vs Year 3 of Obama: Trump wins?
(but per your note Trump Year 3, barely beat Obama Year 5. nothing wrong with that.)
bass4funk
Whether you’re rich or poor is irrelevant in the case of how liberal States like California continue to mismanage their local and State revenues all that wealth and still having the highest poverty rate is just mind boggling, none of these big wig über-rich liberal millennials could care less what happens to these people.
mediabiasfactcheck.com? Hmm....
*As Just Facts grows in prominence and reputation, an increasing number of scholars, major organizations, and eminent people have cited and recognized the quality work of Just Facts. With this higher profile, Just Facts has also been subject to deceitful attacks. A recent example of such comes from “Media Bias Fact Check,” an “independent media outlet” that claims to be “dedicated to educating the public on media bias and deceptive news practices.”*
https://www.justfactsdaily.com/media-bias-fact-check-incompetent-or-dishonest/
https://www.investors.com/politics/editorials/fact-checkers-big-media/
Blacklabel
which has what do to do with 14.7% national unemployment? You wouldnt just be disparaging poor people now, would you?
States with highest number of cases and Deaths had a direct impact on unemployment. because the economic shutdown caused by coronavirus is the cause of the unemployment and those states will be later to open than others.
Blacklabel
Because CNN tells me that Covid-19 could kill an extra 75,000 Americans through "deaths of despair". Which Trump was mocked for saying months ago, but is the new CNN narrative, so its fine now.
Blacklabel
You never answered my comments about the job creation numbers you posted by the way.
Why are we ignoring year 1 and 2 of Obama then comparing year 6 through 8 to Trump years 1 to 3?
Numan
@Black
First, we all know Obama came into office after Bush Jr. ruining the economy.
And he left the US economy in better shape than he received it.
So, trump entering the presidency with an economy from Pres. Obama that has already beat trump's best year.
Yet, trump's first 3 years of job creation still looses to Pres. Obama's first 3 years.
Ronald Reagan 1979: "Are you better off today than you were four years ago?"
Nope,
Dump trump 2020
Chip Star
You’d have to ask the author. I’d imagine it’s because Bush II left the economy in shambles for Obama, whereas Obama left it on solid footing for Donny.
Blacklabel
Because the lowest unemployment rates in 50 years was negatively affected (temporarily) by a worldwide pandemic.
Blacklabel
Untrue, look at the data.
Numan
@Black
Let's not forget the stock market which you keep boasting about under trump.
S&P 500 Has Performed Far Worse Under Trump Than Under Obama
https://fortune.com/2019/06/03/stock-market-trump-obama-sp-500/
Chip Star
It wouldn’t have been so greatly affects had we had a competent leader that was prepared to deal with a pandemic like all the experts had advised.
Chip Star
*affected
Blacklabel
yet the S&P set a record high in 2020.
Chip Star
Yay! A single day. That must mean it has performed better under Donny!
Blacklabel
yes, that is how "record highs" are calculated.
Chip Star
For a single session. The article was discussing the average level, not a single session.
Blacklabel
its sad to see the desperation here.
You have no idea that this is just the beginning of how bad its going to get for "your team".
Non-Americans, just focus on improving your own country is probably best. Americans who hate Trump- might want to make that promised move to Canada or elsewhere.
Im done for this article, the unemployment rate will be improved as people get back to work, thats all that matters. Jobs for people to be able to feed their families and live a good life.
Numan
@Black
That was a typo, and we as well as expert economists and the rest of the world have already explained why it wasn't.
They have also explained why the economy, stock market and unemployment was all better under Pres. Obama.
It is no surprise that the person who was sued numerous times for bad business deals and has filed bankruptcy 6 times including a casino has ruined the US economy.
Stevie Wonder could see this coming!
wtfjapan
I don’t think so, he probably would have injected trillions of aid or what we call printing more money, surpassing all of Trump’s debt and his own previous debt.
congress and Trump have just passed a $6 trillion spending spree, Trumps 1st term national debt is expected to exceed that of Obamas , well over $5trillion,Trump said he was going to fix it, he was well on the way to breaking the record before covid19 even struck.
Will democrats have to save the economy once again from Republican incompetence?
last 70yrs there have been 11 recessions , 49 recessionary quarters, 41 under a Republican 8 under a democrat, and this isnt even counting Trumps coming recession. last 3 ,market crashes 1987 2008 2020 all under a Republican president, well over $10trillion in losses. Then we have the Gulf Iraq and Afghanistan wars over $6trillion in losses, all started under a republican president. America can no longer afford the failures of the Republican party. Yes seems like the Democrats will have to fix all of the Republican frackups again!
MAGA 2020 vote Trump out
bass4funk
It would seem that, liberals claim of fact checking is always right, but conservative fact checking is always wrong? ROFL!
Got it, so what’s the excuse for the richest two States, CA and NY for their poverty? Wait, I got it, “mismanagement.” 55,000 homeless in a State that is home to high tech where poverty should be a joke and it’s not and it’s not getting to the poor or homeless even if some of these people are skilled and trained, they lose out over a foreigner with H-1B visa. Astounding.
wtfjapan
Untrue, look at the data.
yes the data shows Obamas last 3yrs of job creation was better than Trumps 1st 3 yrs,
Obama had 2yrs of better job creation than Trumps best year. 2020 has basically wiped away all of Trums gains. Its official Obama was better at creating jobs than Trump.
Obama
2011: 2.075 million fell to 2.074 million, down 1,000 jobs
2012: 2.174 million fell to 2.176 million, up 2,000 jobs
2013: 2.302 million fell to 2.301 million, down 1,000 jobs
2014: 3.006 million fell to 3.004 million, down 2,000 jobs
2015: 2.729 million fell to 2.72 million, down 9,000 jobs
2016: 2.318 million increased to 2.345 million, up 27,000 jobs
Trump
2017: 2.153 million fell to 2.109 million, down 44,000 jobs
2018: 2.679 million fell to 2.314 million, down 365,000 jobs (Trump’s best year)
2019: 2.115 million fell to 2.096 million, down 19,000 jobs
https://www.forbes.com/sites/chuckjones/2020/02/07/obamas-last-three-years-of-job-growth-all-beat-trumps-best-year/#6c7e07176ba6
Numan
@Black
Dow Highest Closing Records
https://www.thebalance.com/dow-jones-closing-history-top-highs-and-lows-since-1929-3306174
Wow, it seems that they are referring to the bull market under Pres. Obama that ended under trump.
But, you are claiming one day in 2020 as total victory for trump's presidency and legacy.
So, all the other tremendous failures were worth it?
bass4funk
Obama didn’t have to deal with a pandemic, Obama didn’t have to or more directly didn’t deal with the private sector as much as his government expansion programs.
•Since President Obama's 2009 inauguration, 5.9 million people have been added to SSDI, a 23 percent increase over the last five years (compare that to 2.5 million new jobs created during the same time period);
**•SSDI rolls have swollen to almost 11 million recipients (translation: 1 in 14 U.S. workers)**;
•In 2011, only 3.6 percent of enrollees exited the program due to "medical improvement";
•Also in 2011, the program cost taxpayers $128.9 billion (18 percent of all Social Security spending) and generated a deficit of $25.3 billion.
As with all federal programs, SSDI was created as a social safety net to serve a legitimate purpose: to provide income assistance to vulnerable individuals unable to find work as a result of a disability. Most Americans support the sentiment, but compassion has its limits. We draw the line at those who game (defraud) the system in order to secure benefits.
https://www.baltimoresun.com/opinion/bs-xpm-2013-03-03-bs-ed-ehrlich-ssdi-20130303-story.html
We need less government not more, these entitlements will destroy the country.
wtfjapan
Got it, so what’s the excuse for the richest two States, CA and NY for their poverty? Wait, I got it,
yet CA and NY continue to pay more into the Federal taxes than they take out , the predominantly poor red states take out more than they put in, effectively making them welfare states to CA NY. Make no mistake without CA NY the rest of America would turn into a 2nd world country
Numan
Those two states provide most of the funding for that entire list of poor and poorly managed Republican states.
wtfjapan
Obama didn’t have to deal with a pandemic,
he did have to deal with a market crash led by Republican incompetence, so its fair to say all of Obamas spreading was a direct result of Bushs market crash. spending that was well under way . You guys can polish the poo that is the Trump economy all you want the facts clearly show it still is poo
bass4funk
Laffer said the seven-year-long recovery under Obama was the slowest in history and now Americans are flourishing in the boom Trump created thereafter.
“This is the Goldilocks economy if I've ever seen one,” Laffer exclaimed. “And it's because President Trump understands economics ... You get the growth of the U.S. staying at very high rates. You get tax revenues coming in nicely. You keep inflation under control. I mean, what's more to ask?”
How well is the economy doing?
The average 401(k) did indeed hit a record last year, according to a review of 17.3 million accounts by Fidelity Investments. Surging markets around the world were a big reason for growth across accounts in 2019: The S&P 500 index had one of its best years in decades with a 31.5 percent return. Investments of all types logged gains, from junk bonds to stocks from developing economies.
Savings accounts and the stock market weren't the only areas doing well under Trump. Recent signs of strength in the U.S. economy have helped boost home sales, and U.S. manufacturing has shown signs of recovering from a year-long downturn
I understanding, it was in February just before the start of the pandemic, but before that all that deregulation that Trump cut that Democrats turned a blind eye to.
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/economy-much-better-under-trump-163651683.html
Chip Star
Conservatives love small government unless it’s to tell women what to do with their bodies, redistribute wealth from blue states to red states, or to give cash handouts to those that don’t need it.
Chip Star
You're still here?
Sure, let’s do a detailed comparison of years 1-3. We can start by acknowledging the dismal economy Obama inherited from Bush II and the solid economy Donny inherited from Obama.
wtfjapan
We need less government not more, these entitlements will destroy the country.
and yet congress , signed off by Trump is going to inject $6trillion in entitlements, socialist unemployment welfare and bailouts, the most of any president in history, or is this Obamas fault!?
bass4funk
What? Liberals just want to tell everyone how to live, breath, what food they can and should eat, how to defend themselves and how to educate their children, this is even worse of an intrusion on our civil liberties.
Numan
@Bass
You mean Pres. Obama didn't screw up the handling of SARs, Ebola, and bird flu H1N1 in the United States, nor did he disband and defund the Pandemic Unit specifically tasked at preparing for this next global pandemic.
Did Obama Declare Swine Flu an Emergency Only After ‘Millions’ Were Infected?
https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/obama-wait-swine-flu-n1h1/
Pres. Obama did face a pandemic and managed it so well that you (@Bass) for got that it was actually a pandemic unlike trump's failed handling of the coronavirus!
Trump says coronavirus will 'go away without a vaccine'
https://www.yahoo.com/news/trump-says-coronavirus-will-go-away-without-a-vaccine-195154249.html
Pres. Obama was a real president and is a real leader of people!
bass4funk
Hmmm, we just had a pandemic from China that wiped out our economy. So we need two things to reverse that, get the people back to work and cut the temporary relief as soon as possible.
Obama’s was permanent, Trump’s is temporary. Trump wants people to go back to work, Obama signed more entitlements not less, Trump thinks that bailing out states and cities under Democrats that were mismanaged shouldn’t get a dime.
I agree.
Numan
@Black
The facts haven't changed!
@Bass
You mean the 11-year bull market from 2009 that has now turned into a bear market under trump. How are Americans flourishing now?
Are you yearning for the good ole days of 2019?
Strangerland
Hard to blame Trump for the jobs numbers - this is a problem being faced by countries around the world.
But, some countries have leaders that instill confidence in their ability to lead the people, and bring them together to get past these difficult times.
Some countries.
bass4funk
Soon after assuming office in 2009, Obama, who had promised an administration guided by science, abolished the Office of Public Health and Emergency Preparedness that had been established by Bush. This left his administration unprepared when the H1N1 virus, or “swine flu,” emerged in the US in April of that year.
Within days, scientists at the US Centers for Disease Control (CDC) and the World Health Organization (WHO) identified the potential danger of the virus and the urgent need for a vaccine. The Obama administration turned to the “free market” to provide the much-needed vaccine.
Months passed after the virus was identified, and while the first clinical trials began in July, it wasn’t until September that the Food and Drug Administration approved four 2009 H1N1 influenza vaccines—three injectable vaccines developed by CSL Limited, Novartis, and Sanofi Pasteur, and a nasal spray vaccine made by MedImmune. It took another month for these companies to ramp up production in order to distribute the first doses of the vaccine in October.
This delay, which led to thousands of preventable deaths, forced CDC Director Dr. Tom Frieden to admit in an October 23, 2009 press conference:
The CDC has estimated that from April to mid-October 2009, between 2,500 and 6,000 people in the US died from H1N1-related causes. Globally, the CDC estimates that between 151,700 and 575,400 people died from the H1N1 virus within the first year of its circulation.
So no, he did not manage it well at all, the man was a total fraud, but yeah, he spoke well.
Ok, I will concede that’s a wishful thinking opinion, but it’s just that, an opinion.
bass4funk
that was greatly inflated based upon expanding Government sector jobs and part-time service industry jobs? If you think that’s good...ok.
Naw, I passed the days of working at “In n’ Out.” But I still eat their fantastic burgers.
It’s not as if they haven’t thrown enough money out the window and the poverty rate “rises” and I’m not taking about the Herb Alpert song.
So you’re dodging the question, how will CA and NY the richest States with all their money deal with the increasing growing poverty?
Chip Star
Agreed. Imagine how much better the economy would be doing if Donny listened to the experts.
The decision to shelve detailed advice from the nation’s top disease control experts for reopening communities during the coronavirus pandemic came from the highest levels of the White House, according to internal government emails obtained by The Associated Press.
https://www.yahoo.com/news/ap-exclusive-top-white-house-221739591.html
Viktor Cernatinskij
Poor unemployed people are suffering hugely for electing or permitting to be elected such a moron like Trump...
Numan
@Bass
75,000 people have died in the US, and it will reach 100,000 by June. That is more deaths than Americans dying in the Vietnam War.
trump's response:
trump calls 100,00-200,000 a success! By trump's standards, Pres. Obama was really successful!
Numan
@Black
Trump only has 3 years, and they are not going so well. In addition, the good years were directly due largely from the bull market, healthy economy, and lower unemployment due to Pres. Obama.
trump squandered all of that!
Are you also yearning for the good ole days of 2019?
Pres. Obama's numbers still beat trump's across the board!
Ronald Reagan 1979: "Are you better off today than you were four years ago?"
Nope!
Numan
@Bass
The US leads the world in coronavirus deaths under trump's failed leadership.
Coronavirus Map: Tracking the Global Outbreak
https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2020/world/coronavirus-maps.html
6,000 out of 575,400 is a better average than 75,000 of 274,300!
6,000 out of 151,700 is a better average than 75,000 of 274,300!
trump calls 100,00-200,000 a success! By trump's standards, Pres. Obama was really really successful!
bass4funk
If you believe the numbers.
Again? How many died from the common cold, how many died from choking on food or heart attacks? Don’t give me that liberal irrelevant talking point, come on...
How, when he botched the H1N1 outbreak?
Moderator
Back on topic please.
Numan
@Bass
The US leads the world in coronavirus deaths under trump's failed leadership.
Coronavirus Map: Tracking the Global Outbreak
https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2020/world/coronavirus-maps.html
You don't understand the irony in your logic of you doubting numbers that don't support your ideas, yet you use numbers to support your opinion
@Bass quote:
6,000 out of 575,400 is a better average than 75,000 of 274,300!
6,000 out of 151,700 is a better average than 75,000 of 274,300!
The only person who botched things up has been trump.
Ike-in-Tokyo-from-89
What’s next, central planning?
Government intervention, i.e. planning, only makes economic downturns worse. It is said more often now that FDR’s schemes only served to lengthen the Great Depression.
Open Minded
If the economy can completely collapse just after 1 month of lockdown, I suggest it is the right time to review the model.
Chip Star
Obama has to deal with an economy that republicans pushed into an abyss. He did so with temporary stimulus, just like Donny is doing now.
But the stimulus bill was meant to provide a temporary bump to the economy — and it did just that. Here are the facts:
Gross domestic product and total payroll employment were at historic lows when the stimulus passed, and private-sector layoffs were peaking. All three of these very important indicators began to turn around almost exactly the moment the stimulus passed. (The Center for American Progress has some great charts here.)
The Congressional Budget Office concluded that the GDP in the fourth quarter of 2009 was as much as 3.8 percent higher than it would have been without the stimulus.
At the end of 2010, there were approximately 2.5 million more jobs in the country that wouldn’t have existed without the stimulus, according to Mark Zandi of Moody’s Economy.com.
The bill kept nearly 6 million people out of poverty in 2009, according to the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities (CBPP).
*Most of the spending measures in the stimulus bill have expired,** but the point is that it did what it was supposed to do*
https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/plum-line/wp/2014/02/17/the-stimulus-act-was-a-success-and-we-need-another/%3foutputType=amp
Part of Obama’s success was from shrinking the government sector and growing the private sector:
Friday brought a pretty strong March jobs report. Labor force participation (that is, the share of Americans working or looking for work) picked up, and wages were solid — two areas that haven't always been confidence inspiring in past jobs reports.
Jobseekers weren't the only ones celebrating this report; the Obama administration took the opportunity to brag, as well, tweeting about the long, uninterrupted stretch of private-sector job growth.
*The Question:** Is that true?*
*The Short Answer:** Yes.*
https://www.npr.org/2016/04/03/472745523/fact-check-the-white-houses-private-sector-job-streak
*The takeaway: An overall gain of 6.4 million more non-farm payroll jobs last month than in January 2009, which represents a 4.8% increase. All of that growth came from the private sector, while the public sector shrunk: *
https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2015/01/14/job-shifts-under-obama-fewer-government-workers-more-caregivers-servers-and-temps/
bass4funk
Nonessential workers? So basically the people that deliver the produce, the blue-collar workers that take care of the gas, heating and lighting and remove all the trash and the people that do the plumbing, through all nonessential?
Hmmmmm....
dagon
Trump logic translator 2.0-
Laffer said the seven-year-long recovery under Obama was the slowest
in history and now Americans are flourishing in the boom Trump created
thereafter.
“This is the Goldilocks economy if I've ever seen one,” Laffer
exclaimed. “And it's because President Trump understands economics
... You get the growth of the U.S. staying at very high rates. You get
tax revenues coming in nicely. You keep inflation under control. I mean,
what's more to ask
Solution- Arthur Laffer, creator of the "Laffer Curve" and another one of the architects of trickle down economics and Trump advisor. Socialism for the rich, rugged capitalist individualism for the working poor.
https://www.theguardian.com/inequality/2019/jun/06/socialism-for-the-rich-the-evils-of-bad-economics
Chip Star
Numan: Have you been able to find any instances of essential workers being arrested for violating the lockdown? I haven’t. I’ve looked and couldn’t find any.
I did find a few lists of essential workers, like this representative example:
While each municipality will need to determine what its essential services are, here are some examples:
• Executive governance (the mayor,or-his/her designee, who is in charge and has the authority to make executive decisions and enact policies)
• Healthcare
• Fireandpoliceprotection
• Provision is clean water
• Basic sanitation, including a sewage and garbage removal
• Maintenance of communication infrastructure (e.g.,telephone system, radio, internet)
*• *Maintenance of utilities (e.g.,gas and electricity)
*• *Provision of food and other essential services (see below)
• Transportation
• Roadmaintenance/repair
• Banking
• Payrolldepartments
• Tax collection
Essential goods are the food and other supplies that a municipality needs to survive, such as medical supplies and gasoline.
https://www.paho.org/disasters/index.php?option=com_docman&view=download&category_slug=tools&alias=543-pandinflu-leadershipduring-tool-16&Itemid=1179&lang=en
HamsterKauf
Ramen noodles and hotdogs. I eat that everyday!
Tom
If your are unemployed and either you or your spouse have an ITIN Number rather than a social security number, and you paid taxes and filed jointly, you are not eligible for the $1200 each nor the 500 for each child.
I really feel for you people and will do my best from my place in Japan to help my fellow Americans.
The CCP has really done a number on the world including their own people.
Open Minded
The American dream for a happy few.
For the rest: a complete nightmare!