The US may not have "risen from recession" quite as rousingly as
President Barack Obama suggested in his State of the Union speech
Tuesday night.
Seven years after that severe downturn began, household income hasn't recovered, and healthy job growth is complicated by the poor quality, and pay, of many of those jobs.
It's always problematic when a president takes credit for an improving economy, just as it is when he's blamed for things going bad. A leader can do only so much, for better or worse, and there are two sides to every economy. But after an election in which Obama largely held off on chest-beating, he claimed credit in bold terms for what is going right.
Also in his speech, Obama skimmed over the cost to taxpayers of free community college tuition and invited closer scrutiny with his claims about US support for Syrian moderates and about his record of public-lands preservation.
Seven years after that severe downturn began, household income hasn't recovered, and healthy job growth is complicated by the poor quality, and pay, of many of those jobs.
It's always problematic when a president takes credit for an improving economy, just as it is when he's blamed for things going bad. A leader can do only so much, for better or worse, and there are two sides to every economy. But after an election in which Obama largely held off on chest-beating, he claimed credit in bold terms for what is going right.
Also in his speech, Obama skimmed over the cost to taxpayers of free community college tuition and invited closer scrutiny with his claims about US support for Syrian moderates and about his record of public-lands preservation.
No comments:
Post a Comment