Since 1/1/14 there has been record job growth, unemployment has fallen steadily and the stock market has gone up steadily 30%. GDP in the 4 quarter of 2014 was at a post-recession high.
Every one of those indicators directly affects the middle class, as they affect everyone else in the US. Bill, on the GDP, a correction. Q4 GDP is not yet officially available yet.
On Q3 (the most recent quarter for which numbers are available), I already posted to you on this. The BEA exaggerated GDP growth by taking health care payments out of Q1 (which was a very bad quarter anyway) and used them later in the year.
If the GDP rises because people are buying more durable goods (or even certain nondurable goods or financial services), that's a good thing. But roughly 2/3rds of the late year increase to final consumption came from the same ACA payments that were supposed to boost Q1. The myth of a big legitimate spike in GDP has been so thoroughly debunked that even some liberal pundits have backed off the claim. I'll be very curious to see the numbers - many are projecting a deceleration when the numbers come out for Q4, so we'll see.
I'll grant the numbers on the stock market - this has little impact on lower-middle and middle income Americans.
On unemployment, we've been over this. When unemployment rates fall and labor participation rates rise, that's usually a good thing. But when unemployment rates fall while labor participation rates and Civilian Employment-Population Ratios are not good - well, that means you have a mixed bag at best. I don't blame all of this on the president - there's equal blame for all in Washington. But the fact remains that you have a labor market with too many discouraged workers between 21-54 and a persistent wage problem. Obama supporters keep trying to quote numbers about the baby boomers retiring. Yes, there's some truth to that....but some are still working, and you STILL have the problem of people age 21-25 who are dropping out of the labor force numbers. That's not good.
On ACA, normally I'd say that for every group of folks who got better plans, you had folks who lost plans. Not exactly a big accomplishment for the president.
