Jobs
The Average Time for an Unemployed Worker to Find a Job was the Longest in History: The average time it takes for people to find a job was 19.8 weeks in January 2009 when President Obama took office. The average number of weeks it takes for job seekers to find a job reached 40.9 weeks in November of 2011, the longest average time that Americans have been unemployed since the statistic was first recorded in 1948. In April 2012, the average unemployed American was out of work for 39.1 weeks before finding a job.
Spending
Deficits in the President’s Budget Would Slow Economic Growth, CBO Says: According to CBO’s analysis of the economic impacts of the president’s budget, the massive debt and deficits that the budget would rack up would slow economic growth over the next decade. According to CBO, “For the 2018–2022 period, CBO estimates that the President’s proposals would reduce real output, on average, by between 0.5 percent and 2.2 percent compared with what would occur under current law.”
Medicare
General Revenue Hides Medicare’s Contribution to Debt: In their April 25th National Review piece titled “Medicare’s Dirty Little Secret,” former CBO Director Douglas Holtz-Eakin and former House Budget Committee Chairman Jim Nussle explain “advocates of the status quo argue that Medicare receives ‘general revenue transfers,’ but that’s government-speak for raiding the Treasury to spend other tax revenues. It’s the dramatic use of general-revenue transfers that has hidden Medicare’s true insolvency from the public and masked Medicare’s contribution to the national debt.”