The president’s failed policies result in the slowest recovery in 70 years

• Today, the Bureau of Economic Data (BEA) released its updated estimates for gross domestic product (GDP) which showed that the economy grew by an anemic 1.7 percent in the second quarter of 2012.

• Economic growth has slowed for two consecutive quarters as a result of the president’s failed policies.

• Under the disastrous economic policies of President Obama, economic growth has never been weaker in a post World War II recovery.

• While economic growth estimates were slightly higher than originally estimated (1.5 percent), 1.7 percent growth is far too slow to end the nation’s unemployment crisis under President Obama.

• As the Washington Post pointed out today, “Growth at or below 2 percent is not enough to lower the unemployment rate, which was 8.3 percent in July. Most expect the unemployment rate to stay above 8 percent for the rest of this year.”

• The news of feeble economic growth comes just a week after CBO released a report saying that pending tax increases and arbitrary spending cuts would send the U.S. economy into another economic recession and drive the unemployment rate above 9 percent by the end of 2013. Only House Republicans have acted to stop the next recession while Democrats call for more job-destroying tax increases.

• In 2009, after the passage of the Democrats’ failed $1.2 trillion “stimulus,” the president erroneously predicted that GDP growth in 2012 would average 4.6 percent. So far this year, it has averaged 1.8 percent.

Politifact Rates White House Claim that Obama Recovery Outpaced Reagan’s as “False:” According to Politifact, “Job creation under Obama has dramatically trailed the pace set by Reagan. In fact, adjusting for the size of the workforce, Reagan’s recovery was more than four times bigger than Obama’s has been so far.”

Bloomberg: U.S. Incomes Fell More in RecoveryThan During the Recession: According to Bloomberg,“American incomes declined more in the three-year expansion that started in June 2009 than during the longest recession since the Great Depression, according an analysis of U.S. Census Bureau data by Sentier Research LLC. Median household income fell 4.8 percent on an inflation-adjusted basis since the recession ended in June 2009, more than the 2.6 percent drop during the 18-month contraction.”

Associated Press: Economic Recovery is Weakest Since World War II: According to the Associated Press,“The recession that ended three years ago this summer has been followed by the feeblest economic recovery since the Great Depression. Since World War II, 10 U.S. recessions have been followed by a recovery that lasted at least three years. An Associated Press analysis shows that by just about any measure, the one that began in June 2009 is the weakest. The ugliness goes well beyond unemployment, which at 8.3 percent is the highest this long after a recession ended. Economic growth has never been weaker in a postwar recovery. Consumer spending has never been so slack.”

The American People Blame the President’s Failed Policies for Weak Recovery:According to The Hill,  “Two-thirds of likely voters say the weak economy is Washington’s fault, and more blame President Obama than anybody else, according to a new poll for The Hill. …66 percent believe paltry job growth and slow economic recovery is the result of bad policy. Thirty-four percent say Obama is the most to blame.”

• House Republicans have a Plan for America’s Job Creators and it’s time for the president and Senate Democrats to stop blocking our bipartisan jobs bills, such as the dozens of bills passed in the House that would provide relief from record amounts of red tape. 

• Only House Republicans have passed legislation to avoid this recession by stopping the tax hike and replacing the defense sequester with common-sense spending reductions.

• Unfortunately, President Obama and Senate Democrats have not brought forth a credible plan to avoid the next recession. House Republicans have urged the president and Democrats in the Senate to join us in preventing another recession. Without action from the president and the Senate, CBO confirms that we are heading for another recession and higher unemployment.

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