At issue three years into Obama's presidency -- and as he begins his campaign to extend it -- is not whether he inherited this or any "mess," but whether he has done anything useful to remedy it.
He has not; quite the contrary, in fact. Unemployment has rested comfortably at 9% for months, worse than the rate he inherited and greater than the ceiling he promised his "stimulus" would provide. Neither is there much hope for a turnaround, with quarterly growth standing at a mere pittance of what any meaningful recovery should entail.
Much of the fault for this lies at the feet of the President -- or at least at the feet of the policies his administration has pursued and adopted.
This is so for the simple reason that the economy would be in better shape had President Obama walked into the Oval Office in January '09 and done absolutely nothing; no stimulus, no cap and trade, no Obamacare, nothing. Instead the sum effect of these and other pursuits has been to load a recessionary economy with more debt, more regulation, more costs on employment and now, if he gets his way, more taxation.
Unsurprisingly, the state of the economy has failed to improve. Arguably, it has only become worse.
That is not your predecessor's fault, Mr. President. It is your own.
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