Jobs and the Economy

Anemic Job Growth Slows in Year Three of Obama’s “Recovery”:  More than three years into the Obama “recovery” and we are now creating less jobs this year than last. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, job creation under President Obama has slowed below the level necessary to keep up with population growth, much less solve the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression.

Spending

President Obama’s Legacy—Trillion Dollar Deficits: Last month, the Congressional Budget Office released its updated budget and economic forecast projecting a federal deficit of $1.12 trillion for FY 2012, marking the fourth straight year under President Obama’s fiscal policies that the U.S. will borrow over $1 trillion.  Last week, the Department of Treasury confirmed that the 2012 deficit has exceeded $1 trillion. In the four years since President Obama took office, deficits have averaged $1.28 trillion each year.

Medicare

Sequestration’s impact on federal health programs: Despite the limits on mandatory portions of certain programs, such as Medicare, sequestration will cause considerable damage to federal health programs, according to the White House report released Friday. While Medicare will only experience a 2.0% cut, this translates into a $5.6 billion reduction in the Hospital Insurance Trust Fund. A recent report found that the Medicare cuts could cause up to 766,000 health care and related jobs to be lost by 2021, with more than 496,000 lost in 2013. Additionally, the NIH will see a $2.5 billion reduction which, as the White House notes, will “cause the NIH to halt or curtail scientific research, including needed research into cancer and childhood diseases.” Funding for the President’s insurance exchange grants would decrease by $66 million while funding for the health law’s prevention fund would decrease by $76 million. Both Medicaid and the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP) are exempt from sequestration, as are the health care law’s Pre-Existing Condition Insurance Plan and Consumer Oriented and Operated Plan. The report failed to include details at the program, project, and activity level, as was required by the Sequestration Transparency Act of 2012. Only the House has voted to pass legislation to avoid the sequestration.