Mortdooley
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5. Median household annual income has remained stagnant in real terms under Obama.
When President Obama took office in January 2009, median household income, in nominal terms, was slightly above $50,000. According to Sentier Research, median household annual income in September, 2016, the most recent period for which data is available, was $57,616.
While that shows an increase of about $7,000 in median household annual income in nominal terms during President Obama’s administration, when adjusted for the Consumer Price Index, real seasonally adjusted median household income (in September 2016 dollars) was about $57,500 in January 2009, virtually the same as it is almost eight years later.
“In real dollar terms, the median annual income is 1.5% lower (-$884) than its interim high in January 2008 but well off its low in August 2011,” Sentier Research found.
6. The home ownership rate declined from 67.3 percent in the first quarter of 2009 to 63.5 percent in the third quarter of 2016, according to the U.S. Bureau of the Census.
7. Health insurance rates, both for employer-sponsored programs and Obamacare, increased significantly between January 2009 and November 2016.
“In 2008, the average employer-sponsored family plan cost a total of $12,680, with employees footing $3,354 of the bill, according to Kaiser data. By 2016, the cost of the average employer family plan was up to $18,142 for the year, with workers picking up $5,277 of the tab,” as Time.com reported.
“In 2008, high deductibles were the minority: 18% of covered workers had deductibles of at least $1,000, per the Kaiser Family Foundation . . .Fast-forward to 2016, and high-deductible plans have become standard: 51% of all covered workers, and 65% of workers in small firms, face deductibles of at least $1,000,” Time.com added.
According to CNN Money:
Obamacare premiums are set to skyrocket an average of 22% for the benchmark silver plan in 2017, according to a government report released Monday.
The price hike is the latest blow to Obamacare. Insurers are raising prices and downsizing their presence on the exchanges as they try to stem losses from sicker-than-anticipated customers. Enrollment for 2017 will be closely watched since insurers want to see younger and healthier consumers enroll.
The benchmark silver plan — upon which federal subsidies are based — will cost an average of $296 a month next year. That figure is based on prices for a 27-year-old enrollee in the 39 states that use the federal healthcare.gov exchange, plus the four states and Washington D.C. that have their own exchanges.
For 2016, the benchmark plan’s premium rose only 7.2%, on average, for the states that use healthcare.gov.
8. The number of individuals receiving food stamps increased from 32 million in January 2009, according to trivisonno.com, to 43.6 million in August 2016, according to the Food Research and Action Center, an increase of 11.6 million.
The food stamp participation rate has, however, come down slightly since December 2012, when the number of recipients hit their peak of 47.8 million, as the Washington Times reported:
Enrollment in the food stamp program — officially the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program — has soared by 70 percent in the years since President Obama first took office, a new report finds.
The government said the recession ended in 2009, The Wall Street Journal reports, but enrollment in the food stamp program didn’t wane, as would be expected in an improving economy. Since 2008, it’s been on a steady rise, The Journal reports.
A record 47.8 million people participate in the program, as of December 2012.
Summary
With six of these eight economic metrics lower in 2016 than they were in January 2009, and with the two improved metrics qualified at best, it is hard to conclude that America is “indisputably better off” economically today–compared to January 2009.
President Obama’s approval ratings continue to remain above 50 percent less than two months before he leaves office, a reflection of public sentiment concerning his personal style more than his performance on his job.
By most objective measurements, most Americans are not “indisputably better off” economically after eight years of Barack Obama’s presidency.
If most Americans really thought they were “indisputably better off” today than in January 2009, the media might be writing stories about President-elect Clinton rather than President-elect Trump in the final days of 2016.
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