A trend of job hemorrhaging has been reversed, and since the Democratic stimulus bill was enacted, the economy has been gaining jobs.
The occupation of Iraq has ended.
The occupation of Afghanistan is winding down.
The stock market has doubled in value.
The Bureau of Consumer Financial Protection has been established.
The Lily Ledbetter law now guarantees equal pay for women.
Osama Bin Laden is decaying at the bottom of the ocean.
The American auto industry is alive and thriving.
The Affordable Care Act (Obamacare) will soon begin to trim America's bloated health care bill, and provide healthcare for millions who currently are not covered.
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The pace of creation of jobs in the private sector during the current [Obama] administration is now greater than the pace in either of President George W. Bush’s terms in office.
Source: "Obama’s Jobs Number Still Beats Predecessor’s" By FLOYD NORRIS - NY Times - September 14, 2012
Although there was a big stimulus bill under Obama, federal spending is rising at the slowest pace since Dwight Eisenhower brought the Korean War to an end in the 1950s.
Even hapless Herbert Hoover managed to increase spending more than Obama has.
Like a relief pitcher who comes into the game with the bases loaded, Obama came in with a budget in place that called for spending to increase by hundreds of billions of dollars in response to the worst economic and financial calamity in generations.
Before Obama had even lifted a finger, the CBO was already projecting that the federal deficit would rise to $1.2 trillion in fiscal 2009. The government actually spent less money in 2009 than it was projected to, but the deficit expanded to $1.4 trillion because revenue from taxes fell much further than expected, due to the weak economy and the emergency tax cuts that were part of the stimulus bill. When Obama took the oath of office, the $789 billion bank bailout had already been approved. Federal spending on unemployment benefits, food stamps and Medicare was already surging to meet the dire unemployment crisis that was well underway.
After adjusting for inflation, spending under Obama is falling at a 1.4% annual pace — the first decline in real spending since the early 1970s, when Richard Nixon was retreating from the quagmire in Vietnam.
In per capita terms, real spending will drop by nearly 5% from $11,450 per person in 2009 to $10,900 in 2013 (measured in 2009 dollars).
Source: http://www.marketwatch.com/story/obama-spending-binge-never-happened-2012-05-22
Through Friday, since Mr. Obama’s inauguration — his first 1,368 days in office — the Dow Jones industrial average has gained 67.9 percent. That’s an extremely strong performance — the fifth best for an equivalent period among all American presidents since 1900. The Bespoke Investment Group calculated those returns for The New York Times.
Some market effects on wealth are straightforward enough. With the relative decline of traditional pensions, and the rise of defined-contribution plans like 401(k)’s, the well-being of middle-class households is intimately connected to the stock market’s fortunes. That was shockingly evident in 2008, when the Dow declined by more than 33 percent. That market fall, on top of a sharp drop in housing prices, contributed to a 19 percent decline in the total net worth of American households that year, according to figures compiled by the Federal Reserve.
IT’S often said that Wall Street prefers Mitt Romney to Mr. Obama, Mr. Hickey observed, yet the stock market has flourished under the president — and under Democratic presidents generally. Since 1900, it has returned 7.1 percent annually when Democrats have occupied the White House, and only 3 percent under Republicans.
Are you better off than you were four years ago? For stock portfolios, at least, the last four years have been bumpy but they haven’t been bad at all.
Source: "Wall St. May Not Cheer, but Obama’s Been Good for Stocks" By JEFF SOMMER - NY Times - October 20, 2012
[The Recovery Act] jump-started the switch to electronic medical records, which will largely end the use of paper records by 2015. It poured more than $1 billion into comparative-effectiveness research on pharmaceuticals. It extended broadband Internet to thousands of rural communities. And it spent $90 billion on a huge variety of wind, solar and other clean energy projects that revived the industry.[…]Almost every American worker received a tax cut from the act
Source: "Don’t Tell Anyone, but the Stimulus Worked" By DAVID FIRESTONE - NY Times - September 15, 2012
Source: CBO
Source: NY Times - 10/21/12