Business Failures & Worker's Declining Income Portray The Real SOTU But BO's Approval Bumps Up

". . . when small & medium-sized businesses are dying faster than they're being born, so is free enterprise.  And when free enterprise dies, America dies with it.  Let's get one thing clear: This economy is never truly coming back unless we reverse the birth & death trends of American businesses." – Jim Clifton, Gallup CEO & Chairman speaking about business survival in America

 

click on graphs to enlarge

 

The above remarks by Jim Clifton & the information on the above graphs conveys the current state of the union much clearer than anything BO said in Tuesday night's SOTU address where BO again presented totally misleading information on just about every issue.

 

Since 2008 employer business startups have been exceeded by business failures.  Gallup reports there were 400,000 new business startups & 470,000 business failures in 2011.  The U.S. now ranks twelfth among developed nations in business startups behind such countries as Hungary, Denmark, Finland, New Zealand, Sweden, Israel, & Italy – the country is heading in the wrong direction but is still higher in this regard than BO would like.

 

We can see that a deteriorating trend was already underway when the keeping of these records began in 1977 – such deterioration coincides with the country's descending stages of Death Of Democracy.  In the 70s & early 80s America was in the complacency to apathy stage with a slight uptick thanks to President Reagan that lasted a few years.  Since then we have declined to the apathy to dependence stage right before our eyes & BO is trying his best to accelerate the dependence back into bondage stage during his last two years in office.

 

Death Of Democracy describes the path a country follows when it operates with one big government party with two wings who take turns being in power playing loose with the citizen's money.  BO did not cause the problem but he sure is trying to seal the deal as more & more regulations & taxes make running a small business virtually impossible thereby leading to increasing government dependence.

 

The graph below shows another terrible state of our union - the over $2,000 in inflation adjusted decline in the median household income from 2009 through 2013 under BO's presidency.

 

click on graph to enlarge

 

But, despite all this economic misery, since the first of the year every poll measuring BO's job approval has increased with the Washington Post – ABC News poll coming in @ 50% approval.  In fact BO is now in a statistical tie with President Reagan's approval ratings @ the start of his seventh year in office.

 

click on graph to enlarge

 

Now I know that the Washington Post brings up suspicion among conservative readers of RTE but all the other polls also show good bumps up for BO.  The above graph shows 10% gains for BO among Dems, moderates, & white evangelical Christians, 22% for Hispanics, & 19% for adults younger than 30.  BO may lose some of these groups for a short time from time to time, but except for the evangelicals, they always come back to him & really any Democrat.

 

Many showing favor for BO in the above graph may not have the economy & the poor jobs condition described above as their top priority.  For instance, last fall Hispanics could only be pleased with BO's executive action that was the biggest rewrite of U.S. immigration policy in decades that removes the threat of deportation for millions of illegal immigrants – having Ana Zamora, an illegal immigrant as a guest in MO's SOTU box, does not hurt either.  Zamora has gained work authorization through BO's pro-amnesty policies, obtained a work permit, a Social Security number, a driver's license, & her parents are eligible to participate in another one of BO's programs regarding parents that was announced by BO in November.  Thanks to Iowa Congressman Steve King for pointing this out to me.

 

BO's plans call for tripling the maximum child-care tax credit to $3,000, expanding the Earned Income Tax Credit to childless adults, & creating a new $500 credit for households where both adults work – the new spending programs are paid for by $320 billion in new taxes over ten years coming theoretically from revenue from higher top capital-gains tax rates & new inheritance taxes.

 

In addition 1) BO would like Congress to pass legislation that would increase paid sick leave thereby extending government's reach in making policies for businesses & 2) make community college free for some low income workers picking them as winners while choosing people who had responsibly used the popular 529 accounts to save for their children's education as losers.  BO said that lowering taxes of the working class will be "putting thousands of dollars in their pockets each year."

 

It is this nine word statement that is the key to understanding why many people have no interest in the poor job condition of America – BO plans on "putting thousands of dollars in their pockets each year."  By making government bigger the welfare class is spread even further making more people dependent on government – exactly per BO's design. 

 

I recently presented a report by the Manhattan Institute that showed

there has been no increased inequality in America from 1987 to 2012 when measured by real spending per person by income quintile – the best measure of a person's financial well being.  Every politician knows this.

 

Over the years Congress & our state elected representatives have done a masterful job of distributing a portion of the tax revenues to people in the lower quintiles so that the ratio of the top to the bottom quintiles remained constant – hence no increased income inequality & BO's proposals in the SOTU will only add to the precision with which this socialization of America continues. 

 

Reference Post:

Why Income Inequality Has Not Increased In America