Last updated on September 25th, 2023 at 08:44 pm
At long last, median household income has finally recovered from the Bush Recession. You know, the one Republicans denied existed but actually started in 2007.
Yes, just in time to correspond with Republicans running to take us right back to Bush Recession days, Sentier Research issued a report titled “Household Income Trends: November 2015”, because they study these things, and true enough, we have finally recovered in the sense that median household income is back to where it was pre-Bush Recession.
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“According to new data derived from the monthly Current Population Survey (CPS), median annual household income in November 2015 was $56,746, recapturing all of the ground lost since the beginning of the last recession in December 2007 ($56,714),” the report tells us. “However, the November 2015 median was not statistically different than the October 2015 median of $56,688.”
More:
Even though the change in this latest monthly reading is not statistically significant, there is a generally upward trend in income that has been evident since the low point in our household income series that occurred in August 2011. Median income in November 2015 ($56,746) was 4.8 percent higher than in November 2014 ($54,172), and 9.4 percent higher than in August 2011 ($51,875). The period since August 2011 has been marked by an uneven, but generally upward trend in the level of real median annual household income. Many of the month-to- month changes in median income during this period have not been statistically significant. However, the cumulative effect of the various month to month changes since August 2011 resulted in the income improvement noted above.
This is odd to hear because Republicans keep telling us how horrible everything is under President Obama. But median household income has managed to struggle its way back over a nine year journey — at long last.
This will no doubt help the Democratic nominee for president, seeing as Republicans keep trying to paint this as a failure but it is actually hard-won success, managed somehow in spite of Republican obstruction and deliberate and repeated tanking of the economy.
The economy has performed better for people under a Democratic president in modern times. Former President Bill Clinton demonstrated that and President Barack Obama has added to Clinton’s historical gains in terms of record setting, consecutive private sector job gains. Overall job gains also set records. That Obama accomplished this while Republicans imposed willy-nilly austerity measures that tossed public sector employees to the curb and refused to pass Obama’s jobs bill or fund job-stimulation win-wins like infrastructure, is truly incredible.
All of this could be undone, of course, with the unsustainable economic policies of each and every one of the Republican candidates for president, even the few sane ones.
Republicans like to blame President Obama for everything so much so that their “Thanks, Obama!” whine has become a cultural meme to mock their petulance. So it’s only appropriate to thank Obama for this good thing, since he is responsible for every paper cut a Republican has ever gotten.
President Obama has worked tirelessly for seven years to try to help working families and the poor, even when it meant compromises he was not happy to make. No one person is responsible for the economy, but general policies and approaches do matter. Obama and House Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi have pushed for the people at every turn, often failing but never wavering in their resolve.
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