It's Been 4 Years, What Have You Done For Us Mr. President?
The elite media is full of stories grading the President on the job he's done over the past four years.
Did he do what he set out to? How well did he carry out health care reform? Banking reform? Did he squeeze enough money out of the wealthy with tax increases?
In other words, they are grading the President on whether he carried out the to-do list he walked into office with. Grading him on his own terms.
Frankly, that doesn't matter to me. What I think is important is, what have you done for the American people, Mr. President?
I'm thinking of that Janet Jackson song - "What have you done for me lately?"
Remember, Obama said he wanted to be a transformational President, not a caretaker, but a change agent. Unfortunately, the changes I see for us are not so good.
In a country in which we assumed our paycheck will get bigger over time, the opposite has happened.
Median household income is lower.
When the President took office it was $51,190 and now it’s $50,054. That's the most recent number available.
Strangely, household income declined even more after the recession than during the recession.
A fluke that's beginning to feel like the new normal.
The numbers of Americans who are working has decreased since the President's first inauguration, and the unemployment rate is up to 7.8% from 7.3%.
Our entitlement programs are another step closer to being broke. When the President first took office, Social Security trustees forecast it would go broke in 2041, and now they say 2037. Medicare's hospital trust fund will be empty by 2024.
And debt? Of course through the roof.
On January 29, 2009 our national debt was $10.6 trillion, or $34,782 for every American. Today, it's a breathtaking $16.4 trillion or more than $52,000 for each and every one of us.
That's a legacy our children and grandchildren don't need, and that's the problem.
Barack Obama has been a transformational President. A President who has transformed our country, but not in a way I like.
We were confident in our future and excited by our prospects.
We knew we had headwinds, for sure, but now we are burdened by a bigger government, a far reaching government that wants to be in our doctor's office and on our gun rack.
To answer the question, Mr. President what have you done for me lately?
I'll quote another song lyric- I ain't seen nothing yet!