FOD 2013.08.26

obama has spent a large part of the summer - when he wasn't on vacation - bemoaning the plight of America's middle class, and promising to do something about it. How is that playing in Peoria?

Not very well.

Despite his ongoing campaign to promote his economic agenda, President Obama is having trouble persuading the country that his policies are helping the middle class.

The latest Monmouth University poll finds that a plurality of Americans think Wall Street and other elites have been served better than the middle class by the president. Only 12 percent of Americans said middle class families have greatly benefited from Obama's policies, while 46 percent said they haven't benefited at all and an additional 39 percent say they have benefited only a "little."

There's a good reason for those poll results. Middle class Americans deal with harsh economic reality every day - going to work (or looking for work), paying their bills, and trying to put a little aside for a rainy day ... or paying for their kids' college education ... or saving for retirement.

And it's getting harder and harder for us middle class types to keep our heads above water.

New estimates derived from the Census Bureau's Current Population Survey by Sentier Research indicate that the real (inflation-adjusted) median annual household income in America has fallen by 4.4 percent during the "recovery," after having fallen by 1.8 during the recession.  During the recession, the median American household income fell by $1,002 (from $55,480 to $54,478). During the recovery—that is, from the officially defined end of the recession (in June 2009) to the most recent month for which figures are available (June 2013)—the median American household income has fallen by $2,380 (from $54,478 to $52,098).  So the typical American household is making almost $2,400 less per year (in constant 2013 dollars) than it was four years ago, when the Obama "recovery" began.

Importantly, these income tallies include government payouts such as unemployment compensation and cash welfare. So Obama's method of funneling ever-more money and power to Washington, and then selectively divvying some of it back out, clearly isn't working for the typical American family.

obama's summer offensive includes several mystifying elements: a federal rating system for universities (huh?), along with proposals to create jobs in the wind, solar (anyone remember Solyndra?), and natural gas industries.

Oh yeah, and unicorn ranching...

He should quit meddling with things he obviously doesn't understand - like the economy. As Uncle Jed was fond of saying to Jethro, "Don't help me, boy."

(That "boy" isn't a racist comment - it's a quote from the old Beverly Hillbillies TV show that Jed would say whenever Jethro got involved in something and immediately made things worse.)