Thread by @CraigRozniecki

In response to Trump's tweet where he claims credit for the current state of the economy, I thought I'd share the transcript for episode 8 of my podcast ("I Feel Snitty"), entitled, "Don Didn't Built That." It was aired 9/4/19.
ifeelsnitty.podbean.com/e/don-didnt-bu…
#ObamaWasBetterAtEverything

Welcome to I Feel Snitty, episode 8, entitled, “Don Didn’t Build That.” I’m your host, Craig Rozniecki. Today I’ll be dissecting Donald Trump’s seemingly constant self-praise, proving once and for all the claims he makes on his alleged positive accomplishments are nothing more

than riding Barack Obama’s coattails harder than a frat brother on steroids rides a mechanical bull after doing 16 Jaegerbomb shots.

I’ll start each dissection with a quote made by Trump pertaining to the category at hand, starting with the unemployment rate.

Trump once said, “And when we got those great reports, I kept saying, you know, those numbers - whether it’s 4.2, 4.3 - I said for a long time they don’t matter. But now I accept those numbers very proudly. I say they do matter. But we’re doing very well with companies.

We’re really moving along.”

When President Obama took office in January of 2009, the unemployment rate was at 7.8% and moving in the wrong direction. It reached a high of 10.0% in October of 2010. By the time Obama left office, the rate had decreased to 4.7%,

a decrease of 53.0%. As reported in August of this year, the unemployment rate was at 3.7%, a decrease of 21.3%. In order for Trump to match Obama in this category, the unemployment rate would need to shrink to 2.2%, which is less likely than a tortoise winning a race in a sequel

to the story - this one entitled, “The Tortoise and the Cheetah.”

Up next on the slate is job creation, to which Trump has said, “Me and my administration have launched an unprecedented economic boom. Our country is vibrant and our economy is thriving like never before.”

When President Obama took the reigns from George W. Bush in 2009, he was handed the 12th consecutive month of job losses. 783,000 jobs were lost in January of that year alone and 4.348 million combined jobs were lost in those 12 months, an average of 362,333 per.

In Barack Obama’s final 30 months as president, 6.611 million jobs were created, an average of 220,367 per month. Donald Trump’s first 30 months in office? 5.736 million jobs were created or 191,200 per month.

In addition to that, leading up to Trump’s inauguration, if we include the month of January, in which Obama was president for roughly two-thirds of it, Donald Trump was handed 76 consecutive months of job growth, which added up to 15.322 million, or 201,605 per month.

So not only did President Obama average to create approximately 30,000 more jobs per month in his final 30 months than Trump did in his first 30, he averaged to create about 10,000 more jobs than Trump over the span of his final 76 months, compared to Trump’s first 30.

This was coming on the heels of the worst recession since the Great Depression. When Barack Obama entered the Oval Office being handed a literal lemon for an automobile. When Donald Trump entered office, he was handed a Ferrari, only to say he turned a lemon into a Ferrari.

Up next? Manufacturing jobs. During his campaign and throughout his first term, Donald Trump has declared that he’s going to bring manufacturing jobs back. As he himself said, “We’re most proud of the fact - you look at the car companies, they’re moving back, they’re going into

Michigan, they’re going into Pennsylvania, they’re going back to Ohio, so many companies are coming back.”

The fact of the matter is manufacturing jobs had been on the decline even since before the recession. There were 14.213 million manufacturing jobs in this country as of

June, 2006. We then went through 44 consecutive months of job losses on that front, 31 before Barack Obama was even inaugurated. In those 31 months of job losses preceding Obama, that totaled 1.652 million manufacturing jobs. In the 13 months post-Obama, during the recession,

we lost another 1.108 million. On average, that’s a loss of 53,290 and 85,231 manufacturing jobs per month, respectively. When the skid stopped, we found ourselves at 11.453 million manufacturing jobs.

But like with the rest of the economy, things began to bounce back in a positive direction under Obama, as he added 915,000 manufacturing jobs after February, 2010, an average of 11,159 per month. Also, after experiencing 44 consecutive months of losses, under Obama, we went on

to see growth in the sector in 64 of his final 82 months as president (78.0%). Through July of this year, 496,000 manufacturing jobs have been added under Donald Trump, an average of 16,533 per month. So if we look at how things improved from the peak of the recession, the

increase of manufacturing jobs under Obama increased by 113.1%, whereas they increased by 48.2% under Trump. Trump would need to increase the monthly job output in this sector to 23,779.8 in order to match his predecessor. The way things have been trending over the past 13+

years, I’ll win the lottery before that happens.

If there’s one thing Donald Trump likes to talk about more than jobs and unemployment rate, it’s the stock market. He’s even gone so far as to say, and this is a direct quote, “The reason our stock market is so successful is

because of me.” If nothing else, he certainly is modest…

On October 9th of 2007, the Dow Jones was at 14,164.53. Then the recession happened. At its peak, on March 6th of 2009, the Dow was at 6,469.95. It had gone down a staggering 53.3% in less than a year and a half.

Under President Obama, however, things turned around and in a big way, as on the day he left office, it had increased an incredible 206.5%, to 19,827.25. As of August 30th of this year, the Dow was at 26,403.28, an increase of 33.2% since Obama left the White House.

In order for Trump to match Obama here, he’d have to see the Dow increase to, get this, 60,770.50. Allow me to repeat that. Donald Trump loves taking credit for the stock market. He’s even said he’s the reason it’s so successful. In order for him to reach the same level of

success in the stock market as Barack Obama did, he’d have to see it increase from 26,403.28 to 60,770.50. I’m not even sure God dressed up as a wizard could work that kind of magic.

...to be continued in another thread...