# It's official: President Obama Is The Best Economic President In Modern Times **URL:** \ **Category:** Politics & Elections\ **Created:** [September 7, 2014, 7:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-official-president-obama-is-the-best-economic-president-in-modern-times/697794 "2014-09-07T19:23:49Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Johnny\_L.A](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_l.a/32/1084_2.png) [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)\ **Post date:** [September 7, 2014, 7:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-official-president-obama-is-the-best-economic-president-in-modern-times/697794/1 "2014-09-07T19:23:49Z")
So says [Addicting Info](http://www.addictinginfo.org/2014/09/06/its-official-president-obama-is-the-best-economic-president-in-modern-times/). Lest one thinks this is merely leftist propaganda, they quote from [_Forbes_](http://www.forbes.com/sites/adamhartung/2014/09/05/obama-outperforms-reagan-on-jobs-growth-and-investing/), which [Conservapedia](http://www.conservapedia.com/Forbes) includes under [Conservative media](http://www.conservapedia.com/Conservative_media#Conservative_Newspapers_.2F_Magazines). > [@Forbes](#): > > _Deitrick – “President Reagan has long been considered the best modern economic President. So we compared his performance dealing with the oil-induced recession of the 1980s with that of President Obama and his performance during this ‘Great Recession.’_ > > \ > > What’s now clear is that the Obama administration policies have outperformed the Reagan administration policies for job creation and unemployment reduction. Even though Reagan had the benefit of a growing Boomer class to ignite economic growth, while Obama has been forced to deal with a retiring workforce developing special needs. During the 8 years preceding Obama there was a net reduction in jobs in America. We now are rapidly moving toward higher, sustainable jobs growth.” > > \ > > Economically, President Obama’s administration has outperformed President Reagan’s in all commonly watched categories. Simultaneously the current administration has reduced the deficit, which skyrocketed under Reagan. Additionally, Obama has reduced federal employment, which grew under Reagan (especially when including military personnel,) and truly delivered a “smaller government.” Additionally, the current administration has kept inflation low, even during extreme international upheaval, failure of foreign economies (Greece) and a dramatic slowdown in the European economy. ---
**Author:** ![Lobohan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lobohan/32/79_2.png) [@Lobohan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lobohan)\ **Post date:** [September 7, 2014, 11:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-official-president-obama-is-the-best-economic-president-in-modern-times/697794/2 "2014-09-07T23:33:54Z")
Benghazi, IRS, Tan Suit, Benghazi. ---
**Author:** ![Budget\_Player\_Cadet](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/budget_player_cadet/32/205_2.png) [@Budget\_Player\_Cadet](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Budget_Player_Cadet)\ **Post date:** [September 7, 2014, 11:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-official-president-obama-is-the-best-economic-president-in-modern-times/697794/3 "2014-09-07T23:38:34Z")
Great. Now try to convince _anyone_ on the right that any part of that is actually true. ---
**Author:** ![WillFarnaby](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/willfarnaby/32/514_2.png) [@WillFarnaby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WillFarnaby)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2014, 12:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-official-president-obama-is-the-best-economic-president-in-modern-times/697794/4 "2014-09-08T00:26:11Z")
So what is it? Obama is a victim of Republican obstructionists and can’t get his economic agenda through (American Jobs Act- remember this? Lol it was like a bad late night infomercial) or Obama has saved us all by delivering us from economic devastation? For example, when the president and media were warning that not extending unemployment benefits would be the end of the world. The mean old Republican obstructionists did not budge. Unemployment went down. Therefore Obama is the “economic president” of our time. Hilarious the lengths propagandists will go. Reagan was terrible as well, but that’s because he instituted policies that could be described as military Keynesian or more accurately, supply side Keynesian. He had great laissez faire rhetoric, but was actually terrible from a “good government” and even free market perspective. ---
**Author:** ![adaher](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/dec6dc/32.png) [@adaher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/adaher)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2014, 12:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-official-president-obama-is-the-best-economic-president-in-modern-times/697794/5 "2014-09-08T00:35:21Z")
1. He started from the lowest base since the Great Depression. 2. The economy’s best performance has come since his agenda was blocked. Despite his predictions that slightly lower levels of spending would doom the economy, we’ve done quite well with the budget flat since 2010. > **[2010 United States federal budget](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2010_United_States_federal_budget)** > > The United States Federal Budget for Fiscal Year 2010, titled A New Era of Responsibility: Renewing America's Promise, is a spending request by President Barack Obama to fund government operations for October 2009–September 2010. Figures shown in the spending request do not reflect the actual appropriations for Fiscal Year 2010, which must be authorized by Congress. > The government was initially funded through two temporary continuing resolutions. Final funding for the government was enacted ... $3.4 trillion spent > **[2013 United States federal budget](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2013_United_States_federal_budget)** > > The 2013 United States federal budget is the budget to fund government operations for the fiscal year 2013, which began on October 1, 2012, and ended on September 30, 2013. The original spending request was issued by President Barack Obama in February 2012. > The Budget Control Act of 2011 mandates caps on discretionary spending, which under current law will be lowered beginning in January 2013 to remove $1.2 trillion of spending over the following ten years. In addition, several temporary tax ... $3.4 trillion spent Gee, looks like spending restraint is good for the economy! Score one for the conservatives. ---
**Author:** ![Lightnin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lightnin/32/180_2.png) [@Lightnin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lightnin)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2014, 12:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-official-president-obama-is-the-best-economic-president-in-modern-times/697794/6 "2014-09-08T00:49:35Z")
If something bad happens, it’s Obama’s fault. If something good happens, it’s all thanks to the loyal opposition. ---
**Author:** ![adaher](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/dec6dc/32.png) [@adaher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/adaher)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2014, 12:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-official-president-obama-is-the-best-economic-president-in-modern-times/697794/7 "2014-09-08T00:52:22Z")
Well, you don’t get to whine that you can’t get anything done, and then go, “Hey look how great things are while I haven’t been able to get anything done! I think I’ll take credit for it!” Especially when this is a President who claims ignorance of everything that goes wrong, or that it wasn’t his idea. When you portray yourself as a bystander in your own Presidency, that’s how people will think of you. ---
**Author:** ![Lightnin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lightnin/32/180_2.png) [@Lightnin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lightnin)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2014, 12:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-official-president-obama-is-the-best-economic-president-in-modern-times/697794/8 "2014-09-08T00:53:19Z")
> [@adaher](#): > > Well, you don’t get to whine that you can’t get anything done, and then go, “Hey look how great things are while I haven’t been able to get anything done! I think I’ll take credit for it!” Cite for Obama saying he couldn’t get anything done? 'Cause the best I can remember is \*others \*complaining that the Republicans fought him on everything. The fact that he still got stuff done looks badly on the Republicans and favorably on the President. ---
**Author:** ![adaher](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/dec6dc/32.png) [@adaher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/adaher)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2014, 12:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-official-president-obama-is-the-best-economic-president-in-modern-times/697794/9 "2014-09-08T00:55:08Z")
So he hasn’t complained that his agenda is being obstructed? Interesting. ---
**Author:** ![Lightnin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lightnin/32/180_2.png) [@Lightnin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lightnin)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2014, 12:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-official-president-obama-is-the-best-economic-president-in-modern-times/697794/10 "2014-09-08T00:56:23Z")
> [@adaher](#): > > So he hasn’t complained that his agenda is being obstructed? Interesting. Not big on the whole reading comprehension thing, are you? ---
**Author:** ![adaher](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/dec6dc/32.png) [@adaher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/adaher)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2014, 12:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-official-president-obama-is-the-best-economic-president-in-modern-times/697794/11 "2014-09-08T00:58:39Z")
Make an argument. Has the President’s agenda been implemented for the most part, or blocked? If it’s been implemented, then you can plausibly argue that he deserves credit for the improving economy. If it has been blocked, then you can’t. ---
**Author:** ![Lightnin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lightnin/32/180_2.png) [@Lightnin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lightnin)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2014, 1:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-official-president-obama-is-the-best-economic-president-in-modern-times/697794/12 "2014-09-08T01:03:20Z")
Some has been implemented, some has been blocked. It’s up to you to prove that the things that the Republicans stopped him from doing improved the economy, because yours is the extraordinary claim. We aren’t the ones trying to have it both ways- you are. If the President is responsible for the failures of the economy, then he’s also responsible for the successes. Or, as has been put perhaps more succinctly elsewhere- “What’s good for America is bad for the GOP.” ---
**Author:** ![adaher](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/dec6dc/32.png) [@adaher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/adaher)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2014, 1:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-official-president-obama-is-the-best-economic-president-in-modern-times/697794/13 "2014-09-08T01:09:13Z")
> [@Lightnin](#): > > Some has been implemented, some has been blocked. It’s up to you to prove that the things that the Republicans stopped him from doing improved the economy, because yours is the extraordinary claim. > > We aren’t the ones trying to have it both ways- you are. If the President is responsible for the failures of the economy, then he’s also responsible for the successes. > > Or, as has been put perhaps more succinctly elsewhere- “What’s good for America is bad for the GOP.” Actually, I didn’t make that claim. I only claimed that the economy has done better since the GOP wave. And that he can’t simultaneously complain about being obstructed and then turn around and take credit for things. Especially since he ducks responsibility for things so frequently. IMO, that’s the reason the economy hasn’t lifted his polling numbers. Claim that you don’t know what’s going on enough times and eventually voters start to take that claim seriously and you don’t get credit for good things that happen. You’re either in control of your adminstration or you’re not. YOu can’t be not in control of the executive branch of the government and yet somehow in control of the US economy. ---
**Author:** ![Lobohan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lobohan/32/79_2.png) [@Lobohan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lobohan)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2014, 1:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-official-president-obama-is-the-best-economic-president-in-modern-times/697794/14 "2014-09-08T01:47:50Z")
> [@adaher](#): > > Actually, I didn’t make that claim. I only claimed that the economy has done better since the GOP wave. And that he can’t simultaneously complain about being obstructed and then turn around and take credit for things. Especially since he ducks responsibility for things so frequently. > > IMO, that’s the reason the economy hasn’t lifted his polling numbers. Claim that you don’t know what’s going on enough times and eventually voters start to take that claim seriously and you don’t get credit for good things that happen. You’re either in control of your adminstration or you’re not. YOu can’t be not in control of the executive branch of the government and yet somehow in control of the US economy. Or, if you aren’t just talking to spew soundbites, one might say that the little Obama could do has helped the economy. The GOP obstructionism only slowed that, but thankfully, their lockstep ideological march wasn’t enough to cause the damage they wanted to blame on him. ---
**Author:** ![adaher](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/dec6dc/32.png) [@adaher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/adaher)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2014, 3:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-official-president-obama-is-the-best-economic-president-in-modern-times/697794/15 "2014-09-08T03:36:33Z")
Soooo, by raising the minimum wage for federal contractors, he saved the economy! Sorry, doesn’t make up for the fact that he predicted the sequester would cost hundreds of thousands of jobs and we proceeded to have the best year under his Presidency. Assuming that President can positively affect the economy means that the President has to have some idea what the hell he’s talking about. Hey wait! I figured it out! See, the problem under past Presidents is that they paid too much attention to the federal bureaucracy. What the federal government needed was for a President to NOT pay attention so that it could run free and make wonderful things like economic growth happen. By giving the bureaucracy a permission slip to do whatever it wanted with no supervision, he created an economic boom. ---
**Author:** ![adaher](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/dec6dc/32.png) [@adaher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/adaher)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2014, 3:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-official-president-obama-is-the-best-economic-president-in-modern-times/697794/16 "2014-09-08T03:47:27Z")
BTW, this is the second time we’ve had a Democratic President and a Republican Congress and economic performance has been quite good. An argument could be made that this is the best way to run our government. ---
**Author:** ![Snowboarder\_Bo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/snowboarder_bo/32/229_2.png) [@Snowboarder\_Bo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snowboarder_Bo)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2014, 4:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-official-president-obama-is-the-best-economic-president-in-modern-times/697794/17 "2014-09-08T04:33:31Z")
> [@adaher](#): > > BTW, this is the second time we’ve had a Democratic President and **a Republican Congress** Was there a coup or something in the Senate that I’m not aware of? ---
**Author:** ![OldGuy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/3bc359/32.png) [@OldGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/OldGuy)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2014, 4:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-official-president-obama-is-the-best-economic-president-in-modern-times/697794/18 "2014-09-08T04:45:49Z")
> [@adaher](#): > > BTW, this is the second time we’ve had a Democratic President and a Republican Congress and economic performance has been quite good. An argument could be made that this is the best way to run our government. Historically the economy has done better under Democratic Presidents than under Republican regardless of the makeup Congress. See e.g., > **[Want A Better Economy? History Says Vote Democrat!](https://www.forbes.com/sites/adamhartung/2012/10/10/want-a-better-economy-history-says-vote-democrat/)** > > Which party will be better for U.S. economy? Some historical facts on the economy worth reviewing. which ranks the last 11 Presidents economically as 1 JFK/LBJ 2 Clinton 3 FDR 4 Eisenhower 5 Regan 6 Truman 7 Carter 8 H W Bush 9 Nixon/Ford 10 G Bush 11 Hoover That’s _Forbes_ reporting BTW not known for being left-leaning. ---
**Author:** ![Velocity](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/velocity/32/18006_2.png) [@Velocity](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Velocity)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2014, 5:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-official-president-obama-is-the-best-economic-president-in-modern-times/697794/19 "2014-09-08T05:41:04Z")
Everyone interprets data in such a way as portrays their own political leaders or viewpoints in the best possible light. ---
**Author:** ![adaher](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/dec6dc/32.png) [@adaher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/adaher)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2014, 5:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-official-president-obama-is-the-best-economic-president-in-modern-times/697794/20 "2014-09-08T05:45:11Z")
What you meant was “not taking into account” control of Congress. Four of the top six Presidencies feature some control of Congress by Republicans. FDR and JFK are the exceptions. Three of the bottom five featured total control of Congress by Democrats. This makes a lot of sense. Congress taxes and spends, which has a big effect on the economy. And Congress taxes and spends less when control is divided or the GOP is in charge. With two notable exceptions being the bottom two: Hoover’s Presidency saw massive increases in taxes and spending, and GWB’s in spending. The hypothesis holds up: more federal spending, other than during massive economic emergencies= stagnation. Spending control= prosperity. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-official-president-obama-is-the-best-economic-president-in-modern-times/697794.md?page=2)